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SOCIAL      WORK      SERIES 


BROKEN  HOMES 

A  STUDY  OF  FAMILY  DESERTION  AND 
ITS  SOCIAL  TREATMENT 


By 
JOANNA  C.  COLCORD 

SOPEFINTHNDENT   OP   THE    CHARITY    ORGANIZATION    SOCIETY 

OF  THE  City  of  New  York 


NEW  YORK 

RUSSELL  SAGE  FOUNDATION 

1919 


COPYRIGHT.   I9I9.  BV 
THE  RUSSELL  SAGE  FOUNDATION 


^^0'^ 


WM  •  F.  FELL  CO  •  PRINTERS 
PHILADELPHIA 


PREFACE 

NO  LESS  thoughtful  a  critic  of  men  and  manners 
than  Joseph  Conrad  has  remarked  recently  that 
a  universal  experience  "is  exactly  the  sort  of  thing  which 
is  most  difficult  to  appraise  justly  in  the  individual  in- 
stance." The  saying  might  have  been  made  the  motto 
of  this  book,  for  in  its  pages  Miss  Colcord — with  all  the 
eagerness  of  the  newer  school  of  social  workers,  bent 
upon  understanding,  upon  making  allowances — seeks 
that  just  appraisal  to  which  Conrad  refers.  Marital 
infeUcities  and  broken  homes  are  not  universal,  for- 
tunately, but  some  of  the  human  weaknesses  which  lead 
to  them  are  very  nearly  so. 

To  one  who  brings  a  long  perspective  to  any  theme 
in  social  work,  Broken  Homes  suggests  the  successive 
stages  through  which  the  art  of  social  case  work  has 
progressed.  Twenty  years  ago  the  editor  of  this  Series 
was  responsible  for  the  following  sentences  in  an  annual 
report:  "One  of  our  most  difficult  problems  has  been 
how  to  deal  with  deserted  wives  with  children.  .  .  . 
One  good  woman,  whose  husband  had  left  her  for  the 
second  time  more  than  a  year  ago,  declared  often  and 
emphatically  that  she  would  never  let  him  come  back. 
We  rescued  her  furniture  from  the  landlord,  found  her 
work,  furnished  needed  relief,  and  befriended  the  chil- 


«  , « ;  •    < 


«  «   • 


t»REFACE 


1 


• 


•. '  « • . » 


dren;  but  the  drunken  and  lazy  husband  returned  the 
other  day,  and  is  sitting  in  the  chairs  we  rescued,  while 
he  warms  his  hands  at  the  fire  that  we  have  kept  burn- 

ing."  il 

The  passage  belongs  to  the  first  and  what  might  be 
termed  the  "muddling  along"  period  of  dealing  with 
family  desertion,  but  the  fact  that  boards  of  directors 
actually  were  willing  to  print  such  frank  statements 
about  their  own  shortcomings  was  a  sign  that  the  period 
was  drawing  to  a  close. 

This  first  stage  was  succeeded  by  a  disciplinary  period,_ 
in  which  earnest  attempts  were  made  to  enact  laws  thaj 
would  punish  the  deserter  and  aid  in  his  extraditioi 
whenever  he  took  refuge  across  a  state  line.    Laws 
the  strictest,  and  these  well  enforced,  seemed  for  a  whil^ 
the  only  possible  solution. 

Then  gradually,  with  the  unfolding  of  a  philosophy 
and  a  technique  of  helping  people  in  and  through  their 
social  relationships,  a  new  way  of  dealing  with  this 
ancient  and  perplexing  human  failing  was  developed. 
This  third  way  involved  a  more  careful  analysis  of 
relationships  and  motives,  a  greater  variety  in  approach, 
an  increased  flexibility  in  treatment,  a  new  faith,  per^ 
haps,  in  the  re-creative  powers  latent  in  human  nature.' 
But  it  is  unnecessary  to  enlarge  upon  a  point  of  view 
which  these  pages  admirably  illustrate.  Desertion  laws 
continue  to  serve  a  definite  purpose,  as  Miss  Col  cord 
makes  clear,  but  no  longer  are  they  either  the  first  or  the 
second  resort  of  the  skilful  probation  oflicer,  family  case 
worker,  or  child  protective  agent. 


PREFACE 

Just  after  the  Russell  Sage  Foundation  published  a 
treatise  on  Social  Diagnosis  two  years  ago,  a  number  of 
letters  came  to  the  author  urging  that  a  volume  on  the 
treatment  of  social  maladjustments  in  individual  cases 
follow.  But  this  second  subject  is  not  yet  ready  for  the 
large  general  treatise.  A  topic  so  new  as  social  case 
treatment  must  be  developed  aspect  by  aspect,  prefer- 
ably in  small,  practical  volumes  each  written  by  a  spe- 
cialist. This  is  such  a  volume,  and  Miss  Colcord  breaks 
new  ground,  moreover,  in  that  her  book  illustrates  the 
whole  present  trend  of  social  work  as  applied  to  indi- 
viduals. 

Grateful  acknowledgment  should  be  njade  to  the  social 
case  workers  who  have  furnished  valuable  contributions 
to  the  body  of  data  gathered  for  the  present  study. 
Miss  Colcord  wishes  mention  made  of  her  especial  in- 
debtedness to  Miss  Betsey  Libbey,  Miss  Helen  Waller- 
stein  and  Miss  Elizabeth  Wood  of  Philadelphia;  Mr.  C. 
C.  Carstens  and  Miss  Elizabeth  Holbrook  of  Boston; 
Mrs.  A.  B.  Fox  and  Mr.  J.  C.  Murphy  of  Buffalo;  Miss 
Caroline  Bedford  of  Minneapolis;  Mr.  Stockton  Ray- 
mond of  Columbus;  Mrs.  Helen  Glenn  Tyson  of  Pitts- 
burgh; Mr.  Arthur  Towne  of  Brooklyn*  Mr.  E.  J. 
Cooley,  Mr.  Charles  Zunser,  Mr.  Hii:am  Myers,* and 
Miss  Mary  B.  Sayles  of  New  York.  Many  others  not 
here  mentioned  were  untiring  in  answering  questions 
and  furnishing  needed  information. 

Mary  E.  Richmond 
Editor  of  the  Social  Work  Series 
New  York,  May,  1919. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

T.  Introduction 7 

II.  Why  Do  Men  Desert  their  Families?     .  17 

III.  Changes  of  Emphasis  in  Treatment  .       .  50 

IV.  Finding  the  Deserting  Husband      .       .  65 
V.  Further  Items  in  the  Investigation       .  91 

VI.  The  Details  of  Treatment.       .       .       .  106 

VII.  The  Details  of  Treatment  (Continued)    .  125 

VIII.  The  Home-staying  Non-supporter    .       .  149 

IX.  Next  Steps  in  Corrective  Treatment  164 

X.  Next  Steps  in  Preventive  Treatment  185 

Index 201 


BROKEN  HOMES 


INTRODUCTION 

TT  HAS  frequently  been  said  that  desertion  is 
the  poor  man's  divorce  but,  like  many  epi- 
grams, this  one  hardly  stands  the  test  of  expe- 
rience. When  examined  closely  it  is  neither 
illuminating  nor,  if  the  testimony  of  social  case 
workers  can  be  accepted,  is  it  true.  It  is  true, 
of  course,  that  many  of  the  causes  of  domestic 
infelicity  which  lead  to  divorce  among  the  well- 
to-do  may  bring  about  desertion  among  the  less 
fortunate,  but  the  deserting  man  does  not,  as  a 
rule,  consider  his  absences  from  home  as  any- 
thing so  final  and  definite  as  divorce. 

In  a  study  of  desertion  made  by  the  Philadel- 
phia Society  for  Organizing  Charity  in  1902,*  it 

*  Twenty-fourth  Annual   Report  of  the  Philadelphia 
Society  for  Organizing  Charity,  p.  25. 


»    •       t       r  • 


'" '  ;••;;••;;.;  ••;  j^hc^ken  homes 


was  found  that  87  per  cent  of  the  men  studied 
had  deserted  more  than  once.  The  combined 
experience  of  social  workers  goes  to  show  that  a 
comparatively  small  number  of  first  deserters 
make  so  complete  a  break  in  their  marital  rela- 
tions that  they  are  never  heard  from  again,  and 
that  an  even  smaller  number  actually  start  new 
families  elsewhere,  although  no  statistical  proof 
of  this  last  statement  is  available.  One  social 
worker  of  experience  says  that  in  her  judgment 
desertion,  instead  of  being  a  poor  man's  divorce, 
comes'nearer  to  being  a  poor  man's  vacation. 

A  man  who  had  always  been  a  good  husband  and 
father  was  discharged  from  hospital  after  a  long  and 
exhausting  illness  and  returned  to  his  family — wife  and 
seven  children — ^in  their  five-room  tenement.  Ten  days 
later  he  disappeared  suddenly,  but  reappeared  some  two 
weeks  later  in  very  much  better  health  and  ready  to  re- 
sume his  occupation  and  the  care  of  his  family.  His 
explanation  of  his  apparent  desertion  was  that  he  was 
unable  to  stand  the  confusion  of  his  home  and  "had 
needed  rest."  He  had  "beaten  his  way"  to  Philadelphia 
and  visited  a  friend  there. 

The  reporter  of  the  foregoing  remarks  that  it 
illustrates  "unconscious  self- therapy,"  and  that 

8 


INTRODUCTION 

the  patient's  disappearance  might  have  been 
avoided  if  the  services  of  a  good  medical-social 
department  had  been  available  at  the  hospital 
where  the  man  was  treated. 

It  is  more  difficult  to  justify  the  thirst  for 
experience  of  another  deserting  husband  who 
came  to  the  office  of  a  family  social  agency 
after  an  absence  of  a  few  months,  with  effusive 
thanks  for  the  care  of  his  family  and  the  explana- 
tion that  he  "had  always  wanted  to  see  the 
West,  and  this  had  been  the  only  way  he  could 
find  of  accomplishing  it." 

In  fact,  case  work  has  convinced  social  work- 
ers that  there  are  few  things  less  permanent 
than  desertion.  In  itself  this  provisional  quality 
tends  to  create  irritation  in  the  minds  of  many 
of  the  profession.  It  is  upsetting  to  plan  for  a 
deserted  family  which  stops  being  deserted,  so 
to  speak,  overnight.  But  in  their  understand- 
able despair  social  workers  sometimes  overlook 
essential  facts  about  the  nature  of  marriage. 
The  permanence  of  family  life  is  one  of  the  foun- 
dation stones  of  their  professional  faith;  yet 
they  may  fail  to  recognize  certain  manifestations 

9 


BROKEN  HOMES 

of  this  permanence  as  part  and  parcel  of  the  end 
for  which  they  are  striving.  They  would  see  no 
point  in  the  practice  adopted  by  a  certain  social 
agency  which  deals  with  many  cases  of  family 
desertion.  This  society,  when  it  has  had  occa- 
sion to  print  copies  of  a  deserter's  photograph 
to  use  in  seeking  to  discover  his  present  where- 
abouts, often  presents  his  wife  with  an  enlarge- 
ment of  the  picture  suitable  for  framing.  The 
procedure  displays,  nevertheless,  a  profound  in- 
sight not  only  into  human  nature  but  into  the 
human  institution  called  marriage. 

In  the  next  chapter  will  be  considered  some  of 
the  causes  that  make  men  leave  their  homes. 
To  deal  effectively  with  the  situation  created  by 
desertion,  however,  we  have  need  of  a  wider 
knowledge  than  this.  Not  only  what  takes  men 
away  but  what  keeps  them  from  going,  what 
brings  them  back,  what  leads  to  their  being  for- 
given and  received  into  their  hornes  again,  are 
matters  that  seriously  concern  the  social  case 
worker.  What  is  it  that  makes  this  plant  called 
marriage  so  tough  of  fiber  and  so  difficult  to 
eradicate  from  even  the  most  unfriendly  soil? 

ID 


INTRODUCTION 

It  is  fortunate  (since  the  majority  of  case 
workers  are  unmarried)  that  simply  to  have 
been  a  member  of  a  family  gives  one  some  under- 
standing of  these  questions.  The  theorist  who 
maintains  that  marriage  is  purely  economic,  or 
that  it  is  entirely  a  question  of  sex,  has  either 
never  belonged  to  a  real  family  or  has  forgotten 
some  of  the  lessons  he  learned  there. 

Many  volumes  have  been  written  upon  the 
history  of  marriage,  or  rather  of  the  family, 
since,  as  one  historian  justly  puts  itf  "marriage 
has  its  source  in  the  family  rather  than  the 
family  in  marriage."*  In  all  these  studies  the 
influence  of  law,  of  custom,  of  self-interest,  and 
of  economic  pressure,  is  shown  to  have  molded 
the  institution  of  marriage  into  curious  shapes 
and  forms,  some  grievous  to  be  borne.  But  is 
it  not  after  all  the  crystallized  and  convention- 
alized records  of  past  time  which  have  had  to 
be  used  as  the  source  material  of  such  studies, 
and  could  the  spiritual  values  of  the  family  in 

*  Goodsell,  Willystine:  The  Family  as  a  Social  and  Edu- 
cational Institution,  p.  8.  New  York,  The  Macmillan  Co., 
1915. 

II 


BROKEN  HOMES 

any  period  be  found  in  its  laws  and  learned  dis- 
courses? We  might  rather  expect  to  find  stu- 
dents of  these  sources  preoccupied  with  the  out- 
ward aspects,  the  failures,  the  unusual  instances. 
It  is  as  true  of  human  beings  as  of  nations,  that 
the  happy  find  no  chronicler.  "Out  of  .  .  . 
interest  and  joy  in  caring  for  children  in  their 
weakness  and  watching  that  weakness  grow  to 
strength,  family  life  came  into  being  and  has 
persisted."*  It  is  hardly  conceivable  that  in 
any  society,  however  primitive,  there  were  not 
some  real  families — even  when  custom  ran  other- 
wise— in  which  marriage  meant  love  and  kind- 
ness and  the  mutual  sharing  of  responsibilities. 
And  these  families,  today  as  always,  are  the  cre- 
ators and  preservers  of  the  spiritual  gains  of  the 
human  race.  It  has  been  beautifully  said  of  the 
family  in  such  a  form,  that  "it  is  greater  than 
love  itself,  for  it  includes,  ennobles,  makes  perma- 
nent, all  that  is  best  in  love.  The  pain  of  life  is 
hallowed  by  it,  the  drudgery  sweetened,  its  pleas- 

*  Byington,  Margaret  F.:  Article  on  "The  Normal 
Family,"  Annals  of  the  American  Academy  of  Political 
and  Social  Science,  May,  191 8. 

12 


V  INTRODUCTION 

ures  consecrated.  It  is  the  great  trysting-place 
of  the  generations,  where  past  and  future  flash 
into  the  reality  of  the  present.  It  is  the  great 
storehouse  in  which  the  hardly-earned  treasures 
of  the  past,  the  inheritance  of  spirit  and  char- 
acter from  our  ancestors,  are  guarded  and  pre- 
served for  our  descendants.  And  it  is  the  great 
discipline  through  which  each  generation  learns 
anew  the  lesson  of  citizenship  that  no  man  can 
live  for  himself  alone."*  It  follows  that  the 
most  trying  and  discouraging  feature  of  social 
work  with  deserted  wives;  namely,  their  deter- 
mination to  take  worthless  men  back  and  back 
again  for  another  trial,  is  often  only  a  further 
manifestation  of  the  extraordinary  viability  of 
the  family. 

It  is  true  that,  into  this  enduring  quality,  many 
elements  enter,  some  homely  or  merely  material. 
A  desire  for  support,  or  for  a  resumption  of 
sex  relations,  may  play  a  part  in  a  wife's  deci- 
sion to  forgive  the  wanderer.  There  are  many 
other  factors — use   and   wont;    pride  in   being 

*  Bosanquet,  Helen:  The  Family,  p.  342.  London, 
Macmillan  &  Co.,  1906. 

13 


BROKEN  HOMES 

able  to  show  a  good  front  to  the  neighbors;  a 
feeling  that  it  is  unnatural  to  be  receiving  sup- 
port from  other  sources.  Just  the  mere  desire 
to  have  his  clothes  hanging  on  the  wall  and 
the  smell  of  his  pipe  about,  the  hundreds  of 
small  details  that  go  to  make  up  the  habit  of 
living  together,  have  each  their  separate  pull  on 
the  woman  whose  instinct  to  be  wife  and  mother 
to  her  erring  man  is  urging  her  to  give  in.  Home 
is,  in  both  their  minds, 


<( 


.    .    .    .    the  place  where  when  you  have 
to  go  there 

They  hay e  to  take  you  in 

Something  you  somehow  haven't  to  deserve."* 

A  woman  who  had  left  her  home  town  add 
found  clerical  work  in  a  strange  city,  in  order 
not  to  be  near  her  syphilitic  husband  from  whom 
she  had  determined  to  separate,  said,  "When 
you've  been  married  to  a  man,  you  can't  get 
over  feeling  your  place  is  with  him." 

However  we  may  deplore  the  results  in  a 
given  case,  the  spineless  woman  who  takes  her 

*  Frost,  Robert:  North  of  Boston,  p.  20.  New  York, 
Henry  Holt  &  Co.,  1915. 

14 


INTRODUCTION 

husband  back  many  times  may  nevertheless  be 
giving  a  demonstration  of  the  thing  we  are 
most  interested  in  conserving — the  durability 
and  persistence  of  the  family.  And  so  the  social 
worker  who  is  enabled  by  experience  or  imagi- 
nation to  enter  into  the  real  meaning  of  family 
life  is  neither  scornful  nor  amused  when  Mrs. 
Finnegan  is  found,  on  the  morning  when  her 
case  against  Finnegan  is  to  come  up  in  the 
domestic  relations  court,  busily  washing  and 
ironing  his  other  shirt  in  order  that  he  may 
make  a  proper  appearance  and  not  disgrace  the 
family  before  the  judge. 

An  attempt  will  be  made  in  this  small  book 
to  analyze  some  causal  factors  in  the  problem  of 
the  deserter,  to  touch  upon  recent  changes  in  the 
attitude  of  social  workers  toward  deserted  fami- 
lies, to  present  illustrations  from  the  best  discov- 
erable practice  in  the  treatment  of  desertion,  and 
to  suggest  certain  possible  next  steps,  both  on  the 
legal  and  on  the  social  side.  For  lack  of  space,  it 
will  be  impossible  to  consider  the  closely  related 
problems  of  the  deserting  wife,  the  unmarried 

2  15 


I 


BROKEN  HOMES 

mother,  or  the  divorced  couple.  It  is  assumed 
throughout  that  the  reader  is  famiHar  with  the 
general  theory  of  modern  case  work ;  and  no  more 
is  here  attempted  than  to  give  a  number  of  sug- 
gestions which  will  be  found  to  be  practical,  it 
is  hoped,  when  the  social  worker  deals  with  the 
home  marred  and  broken  by  desertion,  or  when 
he  seeks  to  prevent  this  evil  by  such  construc- 
tive measures  as  are  now  possible. 


i6 


II 
WHY  DO  MEN  DESERT  THEIR  FAMILIES? 


*  *  T)  EFORE  the  deserter  there  was  a  broken 
•'^  man,"  said  a  district  secretary  who  has 
had  conspicuous  success  in  dealing  with  such  men. 
By  this  characterization  she  meant  not  necessarily  ^ 
a  physical  or  mental  wreck,  but  a  man  bankrupt 
for  the  time  being  in  health,  hopes,  prospects, 
or  in  all  three ;  a  man  who  lacked  the  power  or 
the  will  to  dominate  adverse  conditions,  who  had 
allowed  life  to  overcome  him.  Such  an  unfortu- 
nate may  not  be  conscious  of  his  own  share  in 
bringing  about  the  difficulties  in  which  he  finds 
himself,  but  he  is  always  aware  that  something 
has  gone  seriously  wrong  in  his  life.  His  grasp  of 
this  fact  is  the  one  sure  ground  upon  which  the  "^ 
social  worker  can  meet  him  at  the  start. 

We  should  distinguish  between  the  causes 
that  bring  about  a  given  desertion,  and  the 
conscious  motives  in  the  mind  of  the  deserter.     It 

17 


BROKEN  HOMES 

is  well  for  the  social  worker  to  make  the  latter 
the  starting  point  in  dealing  with  the  man,  ac- 
cepting the  most  preposterous  as  at  least  worthy 
of  discussion.  The  absconder  is  often  too  inar- 
ticulate and  ill  at  ease  to  give  a  clear  picture 
of  what  was  in  his  mind  when  he  went  away. 
If  he  was  out  of  work,  it  may  have  been  a  per- 
fectly sincere  belief  that  he  would  find  work 
elsewhere,  or  perhaps  only  a  speculative  hope 
that  he  might.  (These  are  not  in  the  beginning 
genuine  desertions,  but  often  become  so  laterr 
on.)  It  is  possible  that,  beset  by  irritations  and 
perplexities,  the  thought  of  cutting  his  way  out 
at  one  stroke  from  all  his  difficulties  made  an 
appeal  too  strong  to  be  resisted.  Or  perhaps 
he  flung  out  of  the  house  and  away,  in  a  pas- 
sion of  anger  and  jealousy  which  later  crystallized 
into  cold  dislike.  The  spell  of  an  infatuation 
for  another  woman  might  well  have  been  the 
cause;  or  he  may  have  been  mentally  deranged 
through  alcohol.  Simple  weariness  of  the  bur- 
den which  he  has  not  strength  of  body  or  mind 
to  carry  and  ought  never  to  have  assumed  is 
one  attitude  to  be  reckoned  with,  and  failure 

i8 


WHY  DO  MEN  DESERT  THEIR  FAMILIES? 

to  realize  or  in  his  heart  accept  the  binding 
nature  of  his  obligations  is  another. 

His  temperamental  instability  may  have  been 
such  that  the  desire  for  a  change — the  "wan- 
derlust"— was  driving  him  to  distraction.  Or 
perhaps,  under  the  urge  of  his  own  subcon- 
scious feeling  of  failure,  he  may  have  convinced 
himself  that  if  he  could  "shake"  the  old  environ- 
ment and  all  in  it  that  hampered  him,  he  could 
take  a  fresh  start  and  make  good.  "If  I  could 
only  get  to  California,"  sighed  Patrick  Donald,* 
"I  have  a  feeling  things  would  be  different." 
With  too  much  imagination  to  be  content  with 
the  situation  in  which  he  found  himself,  Donald 
had  not  imagination  enough  to  realize  that  he 
would  have  to  take  his  old  self  with  him  wher- 
ever he  went,  and  that  he  might  better  fight 
things  out  where  he  stood.  Men  of  his  sort 
yearn  constantly  for  the  future,  not  realizing 
that  in  its  truest  sense  the  present  is  the  future. 

Only  in  rare  instances  will  the  deserter  accept 
the  entire  responsibility  for  his  act.    To  try  to 

*A11  names  of  deserters  given  throughout  the  text  are 
pseudonyms. 

19 


BROKEN  HOMES 

find  justification  for  doing  what  we  want  to  do 
is  characteristic  of  human  beings,  and  the  de- 
serter is  no  exception.  He  attempts  to  "ration- 
alize" his  conduct  and  so  regain  his  sense  of 
self-approval  and  well-being  by  finding  excuses 
and  justifications  in  the  conduct  of  others. 
Even  when  the  fault  is  all  his,  he  usually  suc- 
ceeds in  making  himself  believe  that  his  wife 
is  more  to  blame  than  he  for  his  having  left 
home.*  The  social  worker  who  attempts  to 
deal  with  the  situation  the  deserter  creates 
should  know  this  attitude  in  advance  and  be 
prepared,  through  some  simple  rule-of- thumb 
psychology,  to  attack  the  obsession  and  bring 
him,  first  of  all,  to  see  and  face  squarely  his 
own  responsibility. 

Many  blanket  theories  have  been  developed 
to  explain  desertion — that  it  is  due  to  economic 
pressure;  that  it  is  the  result  of  bad  house- 
keeping; that  its  causes  can  all  be  reduced  to 
sex  incompatibility.    All  these  factors  undoubt- 

*  For  an  excellent  discussion  of  the  process  of  rational- 
ization see  The  Psychology  of  Insanity,  Bernard  Hart, 
Cambridge  University  Press,  19 14. 

20 


WHY  DO  MEN  DESERT  THEIR  FAMILIES? 
edly  have  their  bearing  on  the  problem,  but 
there  is  no  one  cause  or  group  of  causes  under-  ^ 
lying  breakdowns  in  family  morale.  The  ratio 
of  desertions  has  been  observed  to  decrease 
rather  than  to  increase  in  "hard  times";*  more- 
over, it  is  a  matter  of  common  observation  that 
not  all  slovenly  and  incompetent  wives  are  de- 
serted, and  that  many  married  couples  in  all 
walks  of  life  whose  sex  relationships  are  unsatis- 
factory, nevertheless  maintain  the  fabric  of 
family  life  and  support  and  bring  up  their  chil- 
dren with  an  average  degree  of  success.  None 
of  these  three  factors  alone  will  serve,  therefore, 
as  a  fundamental  causation  unit  in  desertion. 
Many  statistical  attempts  have  been  made  to 
study  the  causes  of  desertion,  and  to  assign  to 
each  its  mathematical  percentage  of  influence. 
The  report  of  a  court  of  domestic  relations  gives 
such  an  analysis  of  over  1,500  cases,  listing  25 
causes,  and  carefully  calculating  the  percent- 
age of  cases  due  to  each.    A  summary  of  these 

*  For  a  thoughtful  discussion  of  this  point  see  Eubank, 
E.  E.:  A  Study  of  Family  Desertion.  Chicago  Depart- 
ment of  Public  Welfare,  19 16. 

21 


BROKEN  HOMES 

percentages  grouped  under  five  heads  is  as  fol- 
lows: 


Percentage 

I. 

Distinct  sex  factors 

39-03 

2. 

Alcohol  and  narcotic  drugs 

37.00 

3- 

Temperamental  traits 

15.40 

4. 

Economic  issues 

6.27 

5- 

Mental  and  physical  troubles 

2.30 

100.00 

It  would  be  easy  to  criticize  the  foregoing  on 
the  score  of  grouping.  Can  alcoholism  and  drug 
addiction  be  separated  from  mental  and  physical 
disorders?  And  how  distinguish  infallibly  be- 
tween sex  factors,  temperamental  traits,  and  men- 
tal disabilities?  But  the  main  defect  in  such 
statistical  studies  is  that  they  assume  in  each  case 
one  cause,  or  at  least  one  cause  sufficiently  dom- 
inant to  dwarf  the  rest ;  and  few  of  the  causes 
listed  are  really  fundamental.  The  mind  instinct- 
ively begins  to  reach  back  after  the  causes  of  all 
these  causes.  The  social  worker  who  made  the 
sweeping  assertion  that  there  are  two  great  rea- 
sons for  marital  discord — "selfishness  in  men  and 
peevishness  in  women  " — came  a  good  deal  nearer 

22 


WHY  DO  MEN  DESERT  THEIR  FAMILIES? 

to  an  accurate  statement  of  fact  with  infinitely 
less  trouble. 

Looked  at  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  social 
worker,  desertion  is  itself  only  a  symptom  of  some 
more  deeply  seated  trouble  in  the  family  struc- 
ture. The  problem  presented,  if  it  could  have 
been  recognized  in  time,  is  not  essentially  differ- 
ent from  what  it  would  have  been  before  the 
man's  departure.  Without  attempting,  therefore, 
any  statistical  analysis  of  the  causes  of  desertion, 
we  may  nevertheless  be  able  to  examine  one  by 
one  a  number  of  possible  contributory  factors  in 
marital  unhappiness  and  therefore  in  desertion. 
No  attempt  will  be  made  in  the  list  that  follows 
to  distinguish  between  primary  and  secondary 
causes,  nor  to  arrange  them  in  any  order  of 
importance.  An  effort  to  get  from  case  workers 
lists  so  arranged  resulted  only  in  confusion,  each 
person  emphasizing  a  different  set  of  factors. 
The  groupings  here  given,  therefore,  are  no  more 
than  a  placing  of  the  more  obviously  related 
factors  together  and  a  leading  from  past  his- 
tory up  to  the  present. 

Considering  first  the  personal  as  distinguished 

23 


BROKEN  HOMES 

from  the  community  factors  in  desertion,  these 
may  be  listed  as  follows: 

CONTRIBUTORY  FACTORS  IN  THE  MAN  AND 

WOMAN 

1.  Actual  Mental  Deficiency. — Character  weak- 
nesses such  as  were  spoken  of  earlier  in  this 
chapter  grade  down  by  degrees  into  real  mental 
defect  or  disorder,  and  not  even  the  psychiatrist 
can  always  draw  the  line. 

A  physician  connected  with  the  Municipal 
Court  in  Boston  gives  as  his  opinion  that  while 
the  percentage  of  actually  insane  or  feeble- 
minded among  deserters  is  no  higher  than  among 
other  offenders  they  are  extremely  likely  to 
present  some  of  the  phenomena  of  psychopathic 
personality.  Such  people  have  to  be  studied  by 
the  social  worker  and  the  psychiatrist,  and  not 
from  the  behavior  side  only,  but  with  a  view  to 
discovering  what  sort  of  equipment  for  life  was 
handed  down  to  them  from  their  family  stock. 

The  plan  for  the  future  of  a  fifteen-year-old  boy  which 
was  made  by  a  society  for  family  social  work  was  mark- 
edly modified  when  it  was  discovered  that  not  only  his 

24 


WHY  DO  MEN  DESERT  THEIR  FAMILIES? 

father  but  his  grandfather  had  been  a  man  of  violent  and 
abusive  temper,  who  drank  habitually  and  neglected  their 
family  obligations.  With  this  sort  of  heredity  and  an 
ineffective  mother,  whom  he  was  accustomed  to  seeing 
treated  with  abuse  and  disrespect,  it  was  felt  important 
to  remove  the  boy,  who  showed  some  promise,  to  sur- 
roundings where  he  could  be  under  firm  discipline  and 
learn  decent  standards  of  family  life. 

Feeble-mindedness,  closely  connected  as  it  usually 
is  with  industrial  inefficiency  in  the  man,  bad 
housekeeping  in  the  woman,  and  lack  of  self- 
control  in  both,  is  of  course  a  potent  factor  in 
non-support  and  probably  also  in  desertion. 

2.  Faults  in  Early  Training. — To  low  ideals  of 
home  life  and  of  personal  obligation,  which 
were  imbibed  in  youth,  can  be  traced  much 
family  irresponsibility.  It  is  by  no  means  the 
rule,  however,  for  children  always  to  follow  in 
the  footsteps  of  weak  or  vicious  parents;  and 
it  is  the  experience  of  social  workers  that  such 
children,  taught  by  observation  to  avoid  the 
faults  seen  in  their  own  homes,  often  make  good 
parents  themselves.  Perhaps  even  more  in- 
sidious in  its  effect  on  later  marital  history  is 

25 


BROKEN  HOMES 

the  home  in  which  no  self-control  is  learned. 
The  so-called  "good  homes"  in  which  children 
are  exposed  to  petting,  coddling,  and  overindul- 
gence— and  these  homes  are  not  confined  to  the 
wealthy — produce  adults  who  do  not  stand  up 
to  their  responsibilities.  A  probation  officer  in 
Philadelphia  tells  of  the  mother  of  a  young 
deserter  who  could  not  account  for  her  son's 
delinquency.  "He  ought  to  be  a  good  boy,"  she 
complained;  "I  carried  him  up  to  bed  myself 
every  night  till  he  was  eleven  years  old." 

3.  Differences  in  Background. — Even  though  both 
man  and  wife  come  from  good  homes,  if  those 
homes  are  widely  different  in  standards  and  in 
cultural  background  strains  may  develop  in  later 
life  between  the  couple.  Differences  in  race,  re- 
ligion and  age  are  recognized  as  having  a  causa- 
tive relation  to  desertion.  Miss  Brandt*  found 
that,  in  about  28  per  cent  of  the  cases  where 
these  facts  were  ascertained,  the  husband  and 
wife   were   of   different    nationality.      "In    the 

*  Brandt,  Lilian:  Family  Desertion.  The  Charity  Or- 
ganization Society  of  New  York  City,  1905. 

26 


WHY  DO  MEN  DESERT  THEIR  FAMILIES? 

general  population  of  the  United  States  in  1900 
only  8.5  per  cent  was  of  mixed  parentage,  and 
for  New  York  City  the  proportion  was  less  than 
13  per  cent.  ...  A  difference  in  nationality 
was  more  than  twice  as  frequent  among  the 
cases  of  desertion  as  among  the  general  popula- 
tion of  the  city  where  it  is  most  common." 
Miss  Brandt's  figures  for  difference  of  religion 
are  less  significant,  but  it  existed  in  19  per  cent 
of  the  total  number  of  cases  for  which  information 
on  this  point  was  available.  In  27  per  cent  of 
the  families  where  age-facts  were  learned,  there 
were  differences  of  over  six  years  between  the 
two;  in  15  per  cent  the  woman  was  older  than 
the  man. 

Other  differences  which  should  find  mention 
under  this  heading  are  those  that  arise  when 
the  environment  is  changed  by  immigration. 
The  man  who  precedes  his  wife  by  many  years 
in  coming  to  America  has  often  outgrown  her 
when  she  finally  joins  him,  even  if  he  has  formed 
no  other  family  ties.  The  handicap  is  not 
wholly  overcome  when  the  couple  come  to  this 
country  together,  for  the  much  greater  oppor- 

27 


BROKEN  HOMES 

tunities  of  the  man  to  learn  American  ways  may 
drive  a  wedge  between  him  and  his  wife.  On 
the  other  hand  it  is  a  popular  saying,  particularly 
among  young  Italian  immigrants,  that  girls  who 
have  been  in  America  too  long  do  not  make  good 
wives,  that  when  a  man  wants  to  marry  he  had 
better  send  for  a  girl  from  the  old  country;  and 
these  marriages  seem  on  the  whole  to  turn  out 
well. 


4.  Wrong  Basis  of  Marriage.  —  Included  here 
should  be  hasty  marriages,  mercenary  marriages, 
marriages  entered  into  unwillingly  after  preg- 
nancy had  occurred,  as  well  as  marriages  where 
coercion  was  a  factor  for  other  reasons.* 

When  there  have  been  sex  relations  before 
marriage,  unless  the  custom  of  the  community 
sanctions  such  intimacy,  there  are  likely  to  de- 
velop jealousies,  quarrels,  and  ill  feeling.  "He 
do  be  always  castin*  it  up  at  me,  but  sure,  'twas 
himself  was  to  blame"  is  one  version  of  the  age- 
old  story. 

*  For  a  fuller  discussion  of  forced  marriages,  see  p.  92  sq. 

28 


WHY  DO  MEN  DESERT  THEIR  FAMILIES? 

There  should  also  be  included  here  those  irreg- 
ular unions  called  "common  law  marriages," 
which  are  still  permitted  in  many  of  our  states. 
The  protection  supposed  to  be  afforded  to  the 
woman  by  this  institution  is  mainly  fictitious,  as 
it  is  practically  impossible  to  secure  conviction 
for  bigamy  if  one  of  the  marriages  was  of  the 
common  law  variety.  A  common  law  husband 
who  deserts,  even  if  he  admits  his  wife's  legal 
claim  upon  him,  does  not  feel  morally  bound; 
and  this  fact  undoubtedly  plays  its  part  in  the 
causation  of  such  desertions.* 

5.  Lack  of  Education. — More  is  included  under 
this  title  than  scanty  "book-learning."  Not  only 
the  morally  undisciplined  child  but  the  mentally 
undisciplined  youth  is  handicapped  as  spouse  and 
parent.  Ignorance  of  the  physical  and  spiritual 
bases  of  married  life  is  a  potent  cause  of  desertion. 
So  also  is  a  limited  industrial  equipment.  Irreg- 
ular school  attendance,  early  "working  papers," 
a  dead-end  job  with  no  educational  possibilities 

*  See  also  p.  98, 
29 


BROKEN  HOMES 

in  it — these  form  a  frequent  background  for  later 
unsuccess  in  life  and  in  marriage. 

There  seemed  at  first  no  good  explanation  for  the 
desertion  of  Alfred  West.  Both  his  record  and  his  wife's 
were  good,  and  their  mutual  fondness  for  the  children 
seemed  a  strong  bond.  They  constantly  bickered,  how- 
ever, over  the  small  income  Alfred  was  able  to  earn,  and 
his  wife  and  her  relatives  "looked  down"  upon  him  as 
being  lower  than  they  in  the  social  scale.  Inquiry  into 
past  history  showed  that  he  had  grown  up  in  a  southern 
community  where  there  were  no  facilities  for  education, 
and  that  he  could  not  even  read  and  write  until  after  his 
marriage.  Although  of  average  capacity,  he  was  re- 
stricted by  his  early  lack  of  training  in  his  choice  of  a  job; 
and  the  mortification  and  sense  of  inferiority  which  his 
wife  fostered  led  to  discouragement  and  indifference, 
which  ended  in  desertion.  A  thorough  understanding  of 
the  two  backgrounds  involved  enabled  a  social  worker  to 
effect  a  real  reconciliation,  with  the  woman's  eyes  opened 
to  her  ungenerous  behavior  and  the  man  taking  steps  to 
improve  his  education  in  a  night  school. 

6.  Occupational  Faults.— Closely  allied  to  the 
foregoing,  and  in  some  respects  growing  out  of 
it,  are  the  shortcomings  on  the  employment 
side  that  contribute  to  marital  instability.  Most 
of  these  can  be  referred  back  to  lack  of  education 
or  opportunity  in  youth,  or  to  defects  of  char- 

30 


WHY  DO  MEN  DESERT  THEIR  FAMILIES? 

acter.  Laziness,  incompetence,  lack  of  skill  in 
any  trade,  lack  of  application,  or,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  possession  by  a  man  with  no  business 
"stake"  in  the  community  of  a  trade  at  which 
he  can  work  wherever  he  takes  a  fancy  to  go, 
or  of  a  trade  which  is  seasonal  and  shifting — 
all  these  have  a  direct  relation  to  desertion. 

The  wife's  competence  and  willingness  to  earn 
often  seems  to  have  a  causal  connection  with 
the  man's  failure  as  "provider."* 

Corresponding  to  and  complementing  the 
man's  industrial  defects,  and  springing  from  the 
same  causes,  is  the  woman's  failure  in  the  busi- 
ness of  being  a  housewife.  The  wife's  laziness, 
incompetence,  lack  of  interest,  and  lack  of  skill 
and  knowledge  create,  as  one  case  worker  puts 
it,  "the  sort  of  home  that  tends  to  get  itself 
deserted."  These  faults  of  the  wife  are  respon- 
sible for  as  many  desertions,  probably,  as  are  the 
faults  of  the  husband.  When  the  man  and  the 
wife  are  both  industrial  failures  we  get  the 
extremity  of  family  breakdown  to  be  found  in 
records  of  "chronic  non-support"  cases. 

*  See  also  p.  154. 
3  31 


^^^^^^      BROKEN  HOMES  *^^^H 

F^7.  Wanderlust. — As  a  cause  of  family  desertion 
this  has  probably  been  overestimated.  Some 
item  of  this  sort  appears  in  every  list  of  causes 
of  desertion  which  has  ever  been  compiled,  and 
there  are  more  or  less  exceptional  cases  in  which 
it  probably  plays  a  part.  The  boy  who  becomes 
a  vagabond  in  childhood  and  early  takes  to  the 
road  does  not,  however,  seem  to  be  a  marrying 
man;  and  the  instances  from  case  work  in 
which  it  is  clear  that  the  thirst  for  adventure 
was  at  the  bottom  of  desertion  are  rare.  The 
man  whose  line  of  work  before  marriage  led 
him  from  place  to  place  seems,  in  fact,  hardly 
to  contribute  his  quota  to  the  ranks  of  wife- 
deserters,  and  it  is  unusual  to  find  sailors  or 
other  wanderers  from  force  of  circumstance  figur- 
ing among  them. 

8.  Money  Troubles. — As  has  already  been  said, 
it  is  impossible  to  show  any  direct  relation  be- 
tween small  incomes  and  desertion.  The  con- 
nection between  low  wage  and  non-support  is 
of  course  a  great  deal  closer.  The  inadequate 
income  unquestionably  acts  indirectly  to  break 

32 


WHY  DO  MEN  DESERT  THEIR  FAMILIES? 

down  family  morale  in  much  the  same  way  as 
does  lowered  physical  vitality. 

But  marital  discord  that  springs  from  the 
handling  of  the  family  finances  is  another  mat- 
ter, and  it  recurs  regularly  in  the  history  of 
what  went  on  prior  to  desertion.  One  deserter, 
traced  to  a  southern  city,  returned  voluntarily 
and  begged  the  assistance  of  the  social  worker 
interested  to  reform  his  wife's  spending  habits. 
"I  made  good  money  and  I  never  opened  my 
pay  envelope  on  her,"  said  he,  "but  the  week's 
wages  was  always  gone  by  Thursday."  Many 
men,  however,  who  make  a  boast  of  turning  over 
unbroken  pay  envelopes  to  their  wives  borrow 
back  so  much  in  daily  advances  that  their  net 
contribution  is  only  a  fraction  of  their  wages. 

Some  desertions  brought  about  by  financial 
difficulties  are  not,  strictly  speaking,  marital 
problems  at  all.  Debts  resulting  from  his  own 
extravagance  or  dishonesty  may  cause  a  man  to 
leave  home  to  escape  prosecution  or  disgrace. 
One  such  man  kept  in  touch  with  his  family, 
sending  money  at  irregular  intervals  for  some 
years,  but  always  moving  on  to  another  place 

33 


BROKEN  HOMES 

before  he  could  be  found.  It  proved  impossible 
to  get  in  communication  with  him,  and  finally 
he  stopped  writing  and  disappeared. 

9.  Ill  Health:  Physical  Debility.— All  social  work- 
ers agree  that  physical  condition  plays  a  part, 
though  usually  only  indirectly  and  secondarily, 
in  causing  desertion.  In  the  man,  it  may  lower 
his  vitality,  cause  irregular  work,  and  superin- 
duce a  condition  of  despondency  and  readiness 
to  give  in.  In  the  woman,  it  brings  about  care- 
less housekeeping,  loss  of  attractiveness,  and  dis- 
inclination to  marital  intercourse — all  factors 
which  contribute  directly  to  desertion.  Con- 
tinued ill  health  of  the  wife  brings  burdens, 
financial  and  other,  which  may  help  through 
discouragement  to  break  down  the  husband's 
morale. 

There  should  be  included  here  some  consider- 
ation of  one  of  the  most  puzzling  types  of 
abandonment — the  "pregnancy  desertion."  At- 
tempts have  been  made  to  explain  it  on  the 
ground  of  the  instinctive  aversion  of  the  male 
sex  for  domestic  crises.     But  the  impulse  that 

34 


WHY  DO  MEN  DESERT  THEIR  FAMILIES? 

causes  the  prosperous  householder  to  move  to 
his  club  when  house-cleaning  time  arrives  will 
hardly  serve  to  explain  such  a  custom,  and  as  a 
matter  of  fact  other  domestic  crises,  such  as 
illnesses  of  the  children,  do  not  have  any  such 
effect  upon  the  man  who  habitually  absents 
himself  from  home  before  the  birth  of  each 
child.  Other  possible  reasons  for  it  are  the 
•well-known  irritability  and  "difficulty"  of  women 
in  this  condition,  and  their  aversion  to  sexual 
intercourse.  Some  pregnancy  deserters  take 
the  step  in  the  hope  that  their  wives  will  bring 
about  an  abortion;  but  this  is  a  modern  and 
sophisticated  development  and  the  institution  of 
"pregnancy  desertion"  is  one  of  undoubted 
antiquity.  Its  prevalence  among  certain  Euro- 
pean immigrants  would  almost  point  to  its 
being  a  racial  tradition.  Ethnologists  who  have 
studied  strange  marriage  customs,  such  as  the 
"couvade,"  ought  to  turn  their  attention  to 
discovering  the  causes  of  this  other  and  socially 
more  important  marital  vagary. 

10.  Temperamental  Incompatibility. — It  is  diffi- 

35 


BROKEN  HOMES 

cult  to  catalogue  and  appraise  the  causal  factors 
in  desertion  that  lie  in  personality.  They  are 
closely  related  to  differences  in  background  and 
are  intimately  involved  with  the  sex  relations  of 
the  pair.  We  cannot,  however,  admit  that  they 
are  identical  with  the  latter,  as  some  students 
of  the  subject  claim;  or  that  the  only  incom- 
patibility in  marriage  is  sex  incompatibility. 
Indeed,  two  people  may  be  so  incompatible  as  •• 
to  find  in  sex  their  only  common  ground. 

The  commonest  of  these  temperamental  dif- 
ferences center  about  standards  of  right  and 
wrong  or  proper  and  improper  conduct.  Espe- 
j6ially  is  this  manifested  in  the  bringing  up  of 

V  the  children.  Extreme  self-righteousness  on  the 
part  of   one  or  the   other,  nagging   and  petty 

Y  criticism,  unreasonable  iealousv.  "sulking spells," 
violent  quarrels,  are  some  of  its  manifestations. 

\/The  idea  of  possession  exercised  by  either  of  the 
couple,  and  especially  a  tendency  to  dominate 

'  or  try  to  control  on  the  part  of  the  woman,  may 
be  a  causal  factor  in  desertion.  The  lack  of  a 
saving  sense  of  humor  in  one  or  both  is  often 
a    complicating    factor.      These    comparatively 

36 


WHY  DO  MEN  DESERT  THEIR  FAMILIES? 

minor  differences  take  on  a  serious  complexion 
in  the  minds  of  the  couple;  and  it  is  surprising 
how  often  a  deserting  man  will  give  promptly 
and  with  every  appearance  of  feeling  justified 
some  cause  for  his  desertion  which  falls  clearly 
under  this  head.  ''People  forgive  each  other 
the  big  things;  it's  the  little  things  they  can't 
forgive." 

11.  Sex  Incompatibility.— There  comes  under 
this  heading  a  wide  range  of  causative  factors 
which  play  an  important  part  in  marital  dis- 
cord. Some  of  them  are  better  understood  by 
the  social  worker  than  was  formerly  the  case; 
but  many  of  them  are  obscure  even  to  the  prac- 
titioner of  mental  medicine,  to  whom  their  re- 
sults come  daily.  Distasteful  as  the  task  may 
be,  the  social  worker  should  familiarize  herself, 
through  reading  or  through  instruction  by  a 
qualified  physician,  in  the  commoner  forms  of 
these  maladjustments.  This  is  not  urged  be- 
cause it  is  part  of  the  social  worker's  task  to 
make  detailed  inquiry  into  such  matters  or  to 
pass  judgment  upon   them,   but  because  they 

37 


J 


BROKEN  HOMES 

often  clamor  for  attention  and  need  to  be  recog- 
nized by  the  first  responsible  person  to  whose 
notice  they  are  brought.  Unless  she  knows, 
for  instance,  what  constitutes  excess  in  sex  rela- 
tions, a  worker  may  misunderstand  the  situa- 
tion described  to  her  and  condemn  a  man  for 
being  a  selfish  brute,  when  the  trouble  is  really 
'Sexual  anaesthesia  in  the  wife.  It  is  well  known 
that  this  single  cause  operates  disastrously  to 
disrupt  many  marriages  or  else  to  render  them 
insupportable.  The  warning  should  be  added, 
however — and  it  cannot  be  added  too  emphat- 
ically— that  the  social  worker  must  scrupulously 
refrain  from  making  diagnoses  in  these  cases, 
even  tentatively;  she  must  refer  such  data  as 
come  to  her  either  to  the  general  practitioner 
or  to  the  psychiatrist,  selecting  one  or  the  other 
as  the  symptoms  presented  may  indicate. 

Less  well  understood  by  the  lay  worker  are 
actual  maladjustments,  both  physical  and  men- 
tal (or  spiritual),  which  prevent  the  complete 
satisfaction  of  one  or  both.  Some  of  these  are 
curable  by  medical  care,  others  by  instruction 
and    education.      This    instruction    should    be 

38 


WHY  DO  MEN  DESERT  THEIR  FAMILIES? 

given,  needless  to  say,  by  the  physician  and  not 
by  the  case  worker.  If  uncorrected  such  mal- 
adjustments are  apt  to  result  in  marital  ship- 
wreck. 

No  attempt  can  be  made  here  to  discuss  actual 
sex  perversions  in  their  relation  to  desertion. 
Their  effect  is  obvious;  and  the  social  worker 
should  be  sufficiently  well  informed,  not  only 
from  a  few  standard  books  on  the  subject,* 
but  from  a  knowledge  of  the  phrases  which  are 
used  in  the  tenements,  to  understand  them,  so 
that  significant  symptoms  are  not  overlooked. 
So  intimately  are  sex  difficulties  connected  with 
the  neuroses  that  the  lay  social  worker  should 
consult  the  psychiatrist  freely  wherever  one  is 
available,  before  attempting  to  deal  with  them. 

12.  Vicious  Habits. — Sexual  immorality,  through 
its  degenerative  effect_on  personality  and  the 
lowered  ideals  of  marriage  it  induces,  has  a  real 
effect  in  bringing  about  desertion.    The  "other 

*  Two  books  may  be  suggested :  Forel  on  The  Sexual 
Question  and  Havelock  Ellis  on  Sex  in  Relation  to  Society 
(Vol.  VI  of  Studies  in  the  Psychology  of  Sex). 

39 


BROKEN  HOMES 

man"  and  the  "other  woman"  type  of  deser- 
tion, however,  is  often  itself  only  a  consequence 
of  a  previously  existing  state  of  temperamental 
or  sexual  incompatibility.  If  these  underlying 
causes  can  be  attacked  and  changed  such  a  de- 
sertion may  be  "repairable." 

A  young  man  deserted  his  wife  and  three  children  and 
eloped  with  an  eighteen-year-old  girl  who  had  made  his 
acquaintance  in  a  street  car  flirtation.  He  had  been  "an 
obedient  boy  with  good  principles,"  and  his  later  record 
showed  steadiness  and  ability;  but  he  and  his  wife  had 
been  drifting  apart — their  marital  relations  had  not  been 
''quite  the  same"  as  formerly.  Arrested  and  brought 
back,  he  did  not  impute  any  blame  to  her,  however,  but 
said  he  "must  have  been  crazy."  In  spite  of  the  circum- 
stances, the  judge  decided  to  give  him  six  months  in  the 
penitentiary;  and  a  man  visitor  from  the  family  social 
agency  interested  began  at  once  to  try  to  secure  an 
influence  over  him.  On  his  release  the  couple  again  went 
to  housekeeping.  The  wife  had  been  cautioned  on  how  to 
receive  him;  but  things  went  badly  at  first,  and  the  man 
began  again  insisting  that  they  were  mismated.  (He 
"had  the  other  girl  still  considerably  on  his  conscience 
and  heart.")  Tangles  continually  arose  which  the 
society's  visitor  was  hard  put  to  it  to  straighten  out.  Once 
the  wife  found  a  letter  from  the  girl;  but  finally,  after  the 
charity  organization  society  in  the  city  where  he  had 
left  the  girl  reported  that  she  was  doing  well  and  not 

40 


WHY  DO  MEN  DESERT  THEIR  FAMILIES? 

breaking  her  heart  about  him,  the  man  decided  to  "cut 
out"  the  correspondence.  A  Uttle  later  the  girl  eliminated 
herself  by  marrying.  A  year  after  the  reconciliation  the 
wife  told  the  friendly  visitor  that  the  trouble  was  gone 
between  them,  and  "it  was  just  like  a  new  life."  For 
another  year  efforts  were  continued  to  strengthen  the 
attachment  and  make  the  home  more  attractive,  at  the 
end  of  which  time  it  was  felt  that  the  home  was  stable 
enough  to  need  no  further  supervision. 

For  reasons  of  convenience  we  may  include 
here  the  causal  relations  between  venereal  dis- 
ease and  desertion.  In  so  far  as  syphilis  brings 
about  mental  and  physical  deterioration,  the 
relation  between  the  two  is  obvious.  The  pres- 
ence of  the  disease  in  the  man,  if  known  to  his 
wife,  may  lead  her  to  sever  relations  with  him 
in  self-protection,  and  this  severance,  in  turn, 
may  lead  ultimately  to  desertion  or  complete 
separation.  Often  separation  is  desirable,  but  the 
syphilitic  who  is  on  the  whole  a  good  family  man 
raises  some  of  the  most  difficult  questions  with 
which  the  social  worker  has  to  deal.  Whether 
to  try  to  force  him  out  of  the  home  and  thus 
make  an  unwilling  deserter;  whether  to  violate 
the  diagnosis  given  in  confidence  by  passing  it 

41 


BROKEN  HOMES 

on  to  the  wife  for  her  protection — these  are  only 
two  of  the  puzzles  that  may  arise. 

The  relation  of  alcoholism  to  non-support  and 
desertion  is  too  well  known  to  require  discussion. 
The  causative  relation  between  alcohol  and  de- 
sertion is  so  direct  that  it  probably  ought  not 
to  be  included  under  contributory  causes  at  all. 
As  it  is  an  active  poison  to  the  cells  of  the  ner- 
vous system,  it  may  bring  about  deteriorations 
of  mind  and  character  that  are  directly  to  blame 
for  such  anti-social  acts  as  desertion.  The  same 
is  true  in  less  degree  of  the  use  of  narcotics; 
though  drug  habits  are  far  less  common  in  con- 
nection with  desertion  than  alcoholism.  What 
relation  drugs  and  alcohol  will  hold  to  deser- 
tion after  July  i,  1919,  remains  to  be  seen. 
Alcoholism  in  the  woman  is,  however,  a  real 
contributory  factor,  and  one  frequently  met 
with.  The  experience  of  social  workers  leads 
them  to  believe  that  alcohol  is  more  devastating 
in  its  effects  on  character  with  women  than  with 
men,  and  that  there  is  less  hope  of  a  cure.  The 
great  majority  of  so-called  "justifiable  deserters" 
are  the  husbands  of  alcoholic  women. 

42 


WHY  DO  MEN  DESERT  THEIR  FAMILIES? 

Gambling  in  its  effect  on  family  income  will 
be  discussed  in  connection  with  non-support,  to 
which  it  bears  a  much  more  direct  relation  than 
to  desertion.  In  its  degenerative  effect  upon 
character  it  may  have,  however,  a  real  causal 
relation  to  the  latter. 

The  habit  of  desertion  itself  is  a  degenerative 
one,  not  only  upon  the  deserter  but  upon  his 
home.  The  "intermittent  husband"  often 
weakens  and  demoralizes  his  wife  in  almost  the 
same  ratio  as  his  own  progress  down-hill. 


CONTRIBUTORY  FACTORS  IN  THE  COMMUNITY 

1.  Interference  of  Relatives. — The  tendency  of 
relatives  to  take  sides  against  their  "in-laws" 
is  a  matter  of  everyone's  observation.  It  is 
frequently  found  as  a  serious  factor  in  desertion. 
Many  case  stories  which  will  be  used  in  the  fol- 
lowing chapters  to  illustrate  other  points  show 
also  the  harmful  interference  of  relatives  in  what 
might  otherwise  have  been  a  fairly  stable  home. 
Relatives  can  be  a  factor  in  marital  discord 
without  actively  interfering.    One  high-tempered 

43 


BROKEN  HOMES 

young  couple  formed  what  amounted  to  a  habit 
of  frequent  quarrels  and  temporary  separations 
simply  because  the  parents  of  both  stood  ready 
to  take  them  back  whenever  they  chose  to  live 
apart.  Relatives  within  the  home  as  well  as 
outside  it  may  exercise  an  unfortunate  influence 
on  marital  relations.  The  desertion  of  a  middle- 
aged  man  who  married  a  widow  was  found  to  be 
directly  caused  by  the  antagonism  which  grew 
up  between  him  and  his  grown  step-children. 

2.  Racial  Attitude  toward  Marriage. — The  racial 
factor  is  important  in  desertion.  Not  only  the 
individual's  own  background,  but  the  attitude 
of  the  people  whence  he  sprang  toward  the  sanc- 
tity of  marriage,  toward  the  position  of  women, 
and  toward  the  importance  of  restraint  in  sexual 
relations,  will  have  an  effect  upon  the  desertion 
rate  of  a  given  racial  group.  A  study  was  re- 
cently made  of  480  deserters  known  to  the  New 
York  Charity  Organization  Society  in  19 16-17 
whose  nationality  was  given.  The  results  in 
percentage  form  are  given  for  what  they  may  be 
worth,  compared  with  the  same  percentage  in 

44 


WHY  DO  MEN  DESERT  THEIR  FAMILIES? 

2,987  families  of  known  nationalities  which  were 
under  care  for  all  causes  during  the  same  year. 

Nationality  or  Race 


Per  cent 

Per  cent 

among  2,987 

Race  or  place  of  birtl 

1      among  480 

families  under 

deserters 

care  for  all 
causes 

United  States — white 

30.6 

29.7 

"           — colore 

d           II. 2 

5-6 

Irish 

9-7 

14.7 

Other  British 

5-0 

4.7 

German 

6.2 

6.2 

Itahan  . 

20.2 

28.0 

Austrian 

5-5 

4:8 

Russian'      . 

2."a^ 

I.O 

Polish    ^    . 

3-3 

1/2 

Other    . 

s-1 

4.1 

*-- 

lOO.O 

lOO.O 

3.  Community  Standards. — It  cannot  be  too 
emphatically  stated  that  any  tendency  in  the 
community  to  belittle  or  ridicule  the  estate  of 
matrimony  has  a  definite  cumulative  effect  on 
desertion.  The  "when  a  man's  married"  series 
in  the  comic  supplements,  certain  comic  films 

45 


BROKEN  HOMES 

in  the  moving  picture  shows,  the  form  of  drama 
popularly  called  "bedroom  farce"  are  examples 
of  these  destructive  forces.  Most  of  the  people 
who  laugh  at  them  accept  them  as  a  humorous 
formula  and  are  not  seriously  affected  by  them; 
but  their  educational  effect  on  young  people  is 
bound  to  be  bad  and  false  to  the  last  degree. 
In  so  far  as  they  overemphasize  romantic  love 
and  disparage  conjugal  love,  the  theater  and  the 
popular  press  do  this  generation  great  disservice. 
Another  way  in  which  the  community  may 
affect  the  popular  conception  of  marriage  is  in 
the  administration  of  civil  marriage.  Lack  of 
care  in  enforcing  the  laws  and  lack  of  gravity 
in  performing  the  ceremonies  may  have  a  de- 
cided reaction  on  respect  for  those  laws  and  for 
the  institution  itself.  Similarly,  the  administra- 
tion of  divorce  laws  may  affect  the  popular 
conception  of  marriage.  One  entire  neighbor- 
hood condoned  the  situation  in  which  a  deserted 
wife  immediately  went  to  live  with  another  man, 
on  the  ground  that  "if  they  had  been  rich,  they 
could  have  got  a  divorce." 


46 


WHY  DO  MEN  DESERT  THEIR  FAMILIES? 

4.  Lack  of  Proper  Recreation. — This  may  seem  a 
subject  to  be  discussed  under  personal  factors; 
but  proper  recreation,  after  all,  depends  in  large 
measure  upon  what  the  community  provides  or 
makes  available.  The  American  tendency  for  the 
man  to  get  his  recreation  apart  from  his  family, 
in  saloons  and  social  clubs,  is  responsible  for 
many  family  maladjustments.  Any  change  in 
family  habits  of  recreation  which  means  that 
the  man  and  wife  enjoy  fewer  things  together  is 
a  danger  signal  the  seriousness  of  which  is  not 
always  appreciated.  Social  workers  are  inclined 
to  undervalue  not  only  the  influence  of  faulty 
recreation  as  a  factor  in  family  breakdown,  but 
also  the  possibilities  of  good  recreation  as  an 
aid  in  family  reconstruction. 

-  5.  Influence  of  Ck>nipanions. — As  a  factor  in  de- 
sertion this  is  closely  connected  with  the  two 
just  discussed.  Neighborhood  standards,  as 
they  affect  individuals,  are  apt  to  be  trans- 
mitted through  the  small  group  that  stands 
nearest,  and  a  man's  companions  have  the  freest 
opportunity  to  influence  him  during  their  com- 

4  47 


BROKEN  HOMES 

mon  periods  of  recreation.  The  influence  of 
companions  is  not  often  met  as  a  force  deliber- 
ately exerted  to  bring  about  desertion;  but,  on 
the  other  hand,  a  man's  own  mental  contrast 
between  his  condition  and  that  of  his  unmar- 
ried companions  often  plays  a  definite  part  in 
his  decision  to  desert,  if  he  has  begun  to  yearn 
for  freedom.  The  influence  of  companions  is 
particularly  connected  with  the  "wanderlust" 
type  of  desertion. 

6.  Expectation  of  Charitable  Relief. — It  used  to 
be  held  that  many  men  who  would  otherwise 
remain  at  home  and  support,  might  be  encour- 
aged to  desert  if  they  had  reason  to  believe 
that  their  wives  and  families  would  be  cared 
for  in  their  absence.  This  was  no  doubt  often 
the  case  before  social  workers  had  learned  to 
discriminate  in  treatment  between  deserted 
wives  and  widows,  or  to  press  with  vigor  the 
search  for  deserting  men.  At  present,  it  is  the 
experience  of  social  workers  that  few  men  de- 
liberately reckon  upon  transferring  the  burden 


48 


WHY  DO  MEN  DESERT  THEIR  FAMILIES? 

of  their  family's  support  to  others,  or  are  in- 
duced by  these  considerations  to  leave.* 

In  trying  to  determine  the  cause  for  any  given 
desertion  it  is  well  to  keep  in  mind  from  the  be- 
ginning that  there  is  probably  more  than  one, 
and  that  the  obvious  causes  that  first  appear  are 
almost  certain  themselves  to  be  the  effects  of 
more  deeply  underlying  causes.  A  young  vaude- 
ville actor  of  Italian  parentage  married  a  Jew- 
ish girl,  a  cabaret  singer,  and  took  her  home  to 
live  with  his  parents.  Was  his  subsequent  de- 
sertion to  be  ascribed  to  difference  in  nationality 
and  religion,  to  interference  of  relatives,  to 
irregular  and  unsettling  occupation,  or  to  a 
combination  of  all  three?  Would  all  marriages 
so  handicapped  turn  out  as  badly?  If  not,  what 
further  factors  entered  to  lower  the  threshold  of 
resistance  to  disintegration  in  this  particular  case? 

This  last  question  is  after  all  the  most  im^ 
portant  one  of  the  foregoing  series.  It  is  one 
which  the  social  case  worker  must  never  be 
content  to  leave  unanswered. 

*See  p.  70  sq.  for  a  discussion  of  collusive  desertion. 

49 


^ 


Ill 

CHANGES  OF  EMPHASIS  IN  TREATMENT 

T  TNCONSCIOUSLY  and  imperceptibly,  the 
^^  point  of  view  about  the  treatment  of  de- 
sertion has  been  changing  during  the  past  fifteen 
years.  The  case  worker's  attention  used  to  be 
focussed  on  the  danger  of  increasing  the  deser- 
tion rate  by  a  poHcy  of  too  sympathetic  care 
for  deserters'  families.  Little  study  was  made 
of  individual  causes,  and  in  so  far  as  there  was 
a  general  policy  of  treatment  it  was  to  insist, 
wherever  a  desertion  law  existed,  that  the  de- 
serted wife  go  at  once  to  court  and  institute 
proceedings  against  her  husbands  He  was  often 
not  seen  by  the  social  worker  until  he  appeared 
in  court.  The  policy  toward  the  family  mean- 
time was  to  reduce  its  size  by  commitment  of 
the  children  until  their  mother  could  support 
herself  unaided;  or,  if  relief  was  given,  to  give 
smaller  amounts  than  to  a  widow  or  the  wife 

50 


CHANGES  OF  EMPHASIS  IN  TREATMENT 

of  a  man  in  hospital.  As  soon  as  the  man  had 
been  placed  under  court  order  or  had  returned 
home,  old  records  generally  show  that  the  social 
worker's  efforts  were  relaxed,  and  often  the  final 
entry  is,  "Case  closed — family  self-supporting." 
There  were  excellent  reasons  underlying  much 
of  the  practice.  Few  laws  were  at  that  time  in 
existence  or  at  all  adequately  enforced,  and  any 
man  who  desired  was  at  liberty,  so  far  as  the 
community  was  concerned,  to  walk  off  and  leave 
his  family  at  any  time.  The  multiplicity  of 
sources  of  relief  in  the  large  communities  and 
the  absence  of  anything  resembling  investiga- 
tion constituted  almost  an  invitation  to  men  to 
desert.  It  did  not  occur  to  the  charitable  public 
to  draw  any  line  between  the  widow  and  the 
deserted  wife,  or  indeed  to  inquire  which  of 
these  two  a  woman  was,  so  long  as  she  was  a 
good  mother  and  "seemed  worthy."  No  won- 
der that  the  pioneering  social  agencies,  busy 
forging  tools  out  of  the  very  ore,  took  a  rigid 
stand  on  such  a  question  of  social  policy  as  this. 
Although  their  deterrents  failed  to  eradicate  the 
evil  of  desertion  or  indeed  to  touch  its  sources, 

51 


BROKEN  HOMES 

there  is  little  doubt  that  they  did  lessen  its 
volume  by  creating  a  wholesome  respect  for  the. 
power  of  the  law  in  the  mind  of  the  would-be 
deserter  and  by  fostering  in  his  wife  a  disposi- 
tion to  stand  up  for  her  rights.  The  more 
lenient  and  more  constructive  policies  now  in 
force  have  been  made  possible  in  part  by  these 
changes  of  attitude.  The  very  fact  that  the 
collusive  desertion,  once  fairly  common,  is  now 
seldom  met  with,  illustrates  the  salutary  effects 
of  the  earlier  methods  of  treatment. 

But  the  fact  remains  that  no  marked  change 
has  been  seen  in  the  desertion  rate,  that  suc- 
cessive desertions  have  not  been  prevented  in 
individual  cases.  Hardly  any  statistical  figure 
in  the  work  of  family  social  agencies  shows  so 
little  fluctuation  from  year  to  year  and  between 
different  cities,  as  the  percentage  of  deserted 
families.  It  generally  forms  from  ten  to  fifteen 
per  cent  of  the  work  of  any  such  society. 

Gradually,  therefore,  the  repressive  features 
of  the  earlier  treatment  have  been  abandoned, 
and  there  has  come  about  a  realization  of  the 
complexity  of  causes    that  bring  about   family 

52 


CHANGES  OF  EMPHASIS  IN  TREATMENT 

breakdowns.  In  particular,  the  relation  of  sex 
maladjustments  to  failure  in  marriage  have  re- 
ceived the  serious  attention  of  the  social  worker. 
On  the  question  of  court  intervention  there  has 
been  almost  a  right-about  face ;  the  best  social 
practitioners  now  say,  unhesitatingly  and  un- 
equivocally, that  they  take  cases  into  court  only 
as  a  matter  of  last  resort,  after  case  work  methods 
have  been  tried  and  have  (aHe^.  In  no  other 
case  where  court  action  is  undertaken  by  one 
individual  against  another  does  the  relation  be- 
tween them  remain  unchanged.  One  could  not 
conceive  of  a  business  partnership  failing  to  be 
annulled  by  one  partner  who  brought  suit 
against  another;  yet  we  expect  the  marriage 
relation  to  survive  this.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
such  is  its  vitality  that  it  often  does.  But  many 
times  the  result  of  court  action  is  only  to  deaden 
once  and  for  all  the  tiny  spark  from  which 
marital  happiness  might  have  been  rekindled. 
As  long  as  it  survives,  both  man  and  wife  feel 
in  their  inmost  hearts  that,  no  matter  what  his 
offense,  to  "take  him  to  court"  is  treason  against 
the   intangible   bonds   that   still    hold   between 

53 


y 


y 


BROKEN  HOMES 

them.  No  matter  how  far  apart  they  have 
drifted,  or  how  unforgivable  has  been  the  de- 
serter's offense,  something  irrevocable  does  hap- 
pen to  the  fabric  of  marriage,  a  few  poor  shreds 
of  which  may  still  exist  between  the  two,  when 
his  wife  appears  in  a  court  of  law  to  make  com- 
plaint against  him.  It  is  an  instinctive  realiza- 
tion that  she  is  abandoning  hope,  which  under- 
lies many  a  woman's  reluctance  to  "take  a 
stand  against  her  husband."  Many  social  work- 
ers (including  some  probation  officers  and  court 
workers)  now  feel  that  such  a  stand  should  be 
urged  only  in  the  full  conviction  that  the  pro- 
tection of  the  woman  and  children  demands  it, 
and  that  there  is  nothing  else  to  be  done. 

This  must  not,  however,  be  interpreted  as  a 
criticism  of  the  laws  concerning  desertion  or  of 
the  courts  which  administer  them.  If  they 
were  not  there  in  the  background,  ready  to  be 
taken  advantage  of  when  all  else  fails,  the  social 
worker's  hands  would  be  tied,  and  the  possibil- 
ity of  a  rich  and  flexible  treatment  of  desertion 
problems  would  be  lost  to  her.  It  is  precisely 
because  they  had  no  such  recourse  that  the  case 

54 


CHANGES  OF  EMPHASIS  IN  TREATMENT 

workers  of  an  earlier  day  had  to  adopt  a  policy 
which  now  seems  rigid.  It  is  because  they  were 
instrumental  in  securing  better  laws  and  special- 
ized courts  that  the  latter  day  social  worker 
can  push  forward  her  own  technique  of  dealing 
with  homes  that  are  disintegrating. 

Another  great  change  in  emphasis  has  been 
upon  the  question  of  interviewing  the  man,  and 
of  being  sure  that  his  side,  or  what  he  thinks  is 
his  side,  has  been  thoroughly  understood.  Social 
workers  are  under  conviction  of  sin  in  the  mat- 
ter of  dealing  too  exclusively  with  the  woman  of 
the  family;  in  desertion  cases  it  is  more  than 
desirable,  it  is  vitally  necessary  to  have  deal- 
ings with  the  man.  Many  social  workers  feel 
that,  at  all  events  with  a  first  desertion,  they 
would  rather  take  the  risk  of  having  the  man 
vanish  a  second  time  after  having  been  found, 
than  have  him  arrested  before  an  attempt  to 
talk  the  matter  out  with  him.  More  stringent 
measures,  they  believe,  can  be  resorted  to  later — 
but  the  man  must  first  be  convinced  that  he 
will  be  listened  to  patiently  and  with  the  intent 
to  deal  fairly.    The  case  worker  knows  that  the 

55 


BROKEN  HOMES 

power  of  the  human  mind  to  "rationaHze" 
anti-social  conduct  is  infinite;  and  that,  besides 
the  few  "justifiable  deserters,"  there  are  many 
who  have  succeeded  in  convincing  themselves 
that  their  action  is  warrantable.  A  deserter  who 
could  allege  nothing  else  against  his  wife,  averred 
that  he  had  placed  under  the  bed  two  matches, 
crossed,  and  a  week  later  found  them  in  the 
same  position,  proving  his  contention  that  she 
was  slovenly  and  did  not  keep  the  rooms  clean. 
The  man  who,  aided  by  a  sore  conscience, 
has  worked  himself  into  such  a  state  of  mind 
as  this  must  be  permitted  to  talk  himself  out 
before  he  can  be  made  to  see  the  true  state  of 
affairs.  In  the  minds  of  both  man  and  woman 
there  is  likely  to  be  found  a  superstructure  of 
suspicion,  jealousy,  misinterpretation  and  dis- 
trust, built  upon  the  basic  fact  of  their  incom- 
patibility, which  has  to  be  pulled  down  before 
the  true  causes  can  be  probed.  To  arrest  a  man 
in  this  state  of  mind  is  in  his  eyes  simply  to 
"take  sides"  against  him.  Eventually  he  may 
have  to  be  arrested,  but,  in  the  case  worker's 
experience,   the  chances  of  success  are  ten  to 

56 


CHANGES  OF  EMPHASIS  IN  TREATMENT 

one  if  the  man  can  be  induced  to  take  some 
voluntary  step  toward  reconciliation  without 
the  intervention  of  the  law.  In  many  instances 
a  real  interview  with  the  man,  while  not  exoner- 
ating him,  would  have  thrown  new  light  on  the 
woman's  statements. 

A  family  social  work  society  writes:  A  young  woman 
with  her  mother  and  little  boy  were  referred  for  aid  by 
a  medical  social  department  because  her  husband  had 
deserted  and  she  was  unable  to  work.  The  doctors 
feared  that  her  breakdown  would  result  in  insanity,  so 
they  asked  that  her  wishes  be  respected  in  not  seeing  the 
man's  family.  She  recovered,  but  it  was  later  found 
that  her  husband,  while  not  doing  all  that  he  might  for 
her,  had  been  living  at  home  a  good  deal  of  the  time  and 
did  not  know  that  his  family  was  in  receipt  of  aiA 

Some  years  ago  a  charity  organization  society,  which 
maintained  a  special  bureau  for  treatment  of  desertion 
cases,  was  asked  by  a  Mrs.  Clara  Williams  to  help  her 
find  her  husband,  John,  who  had  left  her  some  years 
previously  and  was  living  with  another  woman,  so  that 
she  might  force  him  to  contribute  to  the  support  of  her- 
self and  her  two  children.  Mrs.  Williams  was  a  motherly 
appearing  person  who  kept  a  clean,  neat  home,  and 
seemed  to  take  excellent  care  of  her  children.  She  was 
voluble  concerning  her  husband's  misdeeds  and  very 
bitter  toward  him,  which  seemed  only  natural.  The  fact 
of  the  other  household  was  corroborated  from  other 

57 


BROKEN  HOMES 

sources,  and  Mr.  Williams'  work  references  indicated  that 
he  had  been  quarrelsome  and  difficult  for  his  employers 
to  get  along  with,  although  a  competent  workman.  The 
problem  seemed  to  the  desertion  agent  a  perfectly  clear 
and  uncompHcated  one  and  he  proceeded  to  handle  it 
according  to  the  formula.  Some  very  clever  detective 
work  followed,  in  the  course  of  which  the  man  was  traced 
from  one  suburban  city  to  another,  and  his  present  place 
of  employment  found  in  the  city  where  his  wife  lived, 
although  he  lived  just  across  the  border  of  another  state. 
The  warrant  was  served  upon  the  man  as  he  stepped  from 
the  train  on  his  way  to  work,  and  he  appeared  in  the 
domestic  relations  court.  He  did  not  deny  the  desertion 
but  made  some  attempt  to  bring  counter  charges  against 
his  wife.  When  questioned  about  his  present  mode  of 
Hving  he  became  silent  and  refused  to  testify  further. 
He  was  placed  under  bond,  which  was  furnished  by  the 
relatives  of  the  woman  with  whom  he  was  Hving,  to  pay 
his  wife  $6.00  a  week.  No  probation  was  thought  nec- 
essary and  the  case  was  closed,  both  the  court  and  the 
charity  organization  society  crediting  themselves  with  a 
case  successfully  handled  and  terminated. 

About  a  year  later  Mrs.  Williams  again  applied,  stating 
that  her  husband's  bond  had  lapsed,  his  payment  had 
ceased,  and  that  she  had  no  knowledge  of  his  whereabouts. 
Although  her  home  and  children  were  still  immaculate 
she  failed  to  satisfy  the  social  worker  who  this  time 
visited  her  home  with  the  plausible  story  which  she  had 
told  before.  The  children's  health  was  not  good  and 
they  seemed  unnaturally  repressed  and  unhappy.     Ugly 

58 


CHANGES  OF  EMPHASIS  IN  TREATMENT 

reports  that  Mrs.  Williams  drank  came  to  the  soci- 
ety. The  school  teacher  deplored  the  effect  which  the 
morbid  nature  of  Mrs.  Williams  was  having  on  her 
youngest  child — a  daughter  just  entering  adolescence. 
The  son,  a  boy  a  little  older,  was  listless  and  unsatis- 
factory at  his  work,  and  defiant  and  secretive  toward  any 
attempt  to  get  to  know  him  better.  He  spent  many 
nights  away  from  home  and  was  evidently  not  on  good 
terms  with  his  mother.  As  soon  as  Mrs.  WilHams  saw 
that  real  information  was  desired  she  began  indulging  in 
fits  of  rage  in  which  she  displayed  such  an  exaggerated 
ego  as  to  cause  some  doubts  as  to  her  mentality.  Baffled 
at  every  turn  the  case  worker  decided  to  interview  the 
man,  if  possible,  to  see  if  through  him  any  clue  to  the 
situation  might  be  gained.  The  first  step  was  to  gain 
the  confidence  of  a  former  fellow-workman  and  friend  of 
his  who  now  maintained  his  own  small  shop.  This  was 
done  after  several  visits,  the  deserting  husband  consent- 
ing to  an  evening  meeting  in  his  friend's  shop. 

A  most  illuminating  interview  followed.  Mr.  Williams 
was  found  to  be  an  intelligent  though  melancholy  and 
self-centered  man.  The  couple  had  married  somewhat 
late  in  hfe,  it  being  Mrs.  Wilhams'  second  marriage. 
She  had  been  strongly  influenced  by  her  mother  to 
marry  him  and  had  never  had  any  real  affection  for 
him.  It  became  very  evident  from  his  story  that  the 
strongly  developed  egotism  of  both  the  husband  and 
wife  had  made  a  real  marriage  impossible  between  them, 
and  the  visitor  became  convinced  of  the  genuineness  of 
Mr.  Williams'  protestations  that  he  endured  the  constant 

59 


BROKEN  HOMES 

abuse  and  ill-treatment  of  his  wife  as  long  as  it  had  been 
possible  to  do  so.  As  her  drinking  habits  took  more  hold 
upon  her  and  he  had  realized  that  the  break  was  coming 
he  had  endeavored  to  place  the  children  in  homes,  and 
had  once  had  his  wife  taken  into  court.  There  her 
plausible  story  and  good  appearance  resulted  in  the  case 
being  dismissed  with  a  reprimand  to  the  husband.  He 
then  left  home,  but  continued  to  send  her  money  at  inter- 
vals, although  as  he  got  older  he  was  able  to  earn  less  at 
his  trade.  Socialism  was  his  religion,  and  it  was  his 
preaching  of  this  doctrine  in  season  and  out  to  his  fellow 
workmen  which  had  earned  him  the  ill-will  of  his  employ- 
ers. He  defended  his  present  mode  of  living,  vigorously 
putting  up  a  strong  argument  that  it  was  a  real  marriage, 
whereas  the  other  had  only  been  a  sham.  He  spoke  in 
terms  of  affection  of  the  woman  who  was  giving  him  the 
only  real  home  he  had  ever  known,  and  only  wished  that 
the  state  of  public  opinion  would  permit  his  taking  his 
young  daughter  into  his  home.  The  boy,  he  realized,  had 
grown  entirely  away  from  him  and  they  could  never  mean 
anything  to  each  other.  It  was  his  habit  to  make  fre- 
quent trips  back  to  the  region  where  his  family  lived  in 
order  that  he  might  stand  on  the  corner  and  watch  his 
children  go  by.  He  gave  readily  much  information  about 
his  own  and  his  wife's  past  connections,  including  the 
addresses  of  many  of  her  relatives  whose  existence  she  had 
denied,  and  he  successfully  proved  that  her  claims  as  to 
his  lapsed  payments  were  false  by  producing  the  entire 
series  of  post  office  receipts  covering  his  remittances  to 


60 


CHANGES  OF  EMPHASIS  IN  TREATMENT 

her  and  extending  down  to  the  very  week  of  the  inter- 
view.* 


There  have  been  striking  changes  not  only  in 
the  treatment  of  the  deserter  but  in  that  of  his 
family.  Writing  in  1910,  Miss  Breedf  deprecates 
the  habit  of  fostering  the  deserter's  "easy-going 
conviction  that  his  family  will  get  along  some- 
how without  him"  by  giving  relief.  She  ap- 
proves offering  full  support  in  an  institution, 
but  is  reluctant  to  recommend  any  form  of  aid 
in  the  home,  even  from  relatives.  It  is  better, 
she  feels,  to  give  entire  support  to  some  of  the 
children  in  foster  homes,  leaving  the  mother 
only  those  she  can  care  for. 

Much  can  be  said  for  even  so  stringent  a 
policy  as  this.  An  unstable  home,  with  a  worth- 
less father  an  intermittent  member  of  the  house- 
hold, is  as  bad  an  environment  as  children  can 
have — its  very  fluctuations  making  for  nervous 

*  Adapted  from  the  writer's  article  on  "Desertion  and 
Non-Support  in  Family  Case  Work,"  The  Annals  of  the 
Academy  of  Political  and  Social  Science,  May,  19 18,  p.  98. 

t  Breed,  Mary:  Eleventh  New  York  State  Conference, 
1910,  p.  76. 

61 


BROKEN  HOMES 

instability  and  a  wrong  point  of  view  later  on. 
There  is  a  possibility  that  other  would-be  de- 
serters may  be  deterred  by  temporarily  breaking 
up  the  home,  and  that  an  occasional  absconding 
father  may  be  brought  back.  But  the  fact  re- 
mains that  social  workers  have,  in  practice,  de- 
parted far  from  this  point  of  view.  Out  of  more 
than  twenty-five  case  workers  of  experience  who 
were  interviewed  or  written  to  in  preparation  for 
this  book,  only  one  believed  there  had  not  been 
a  decided  change  toward  a  policy  of  more  liberal 
relief. 

One  district  secretary  told  of  a  woman  who  had  more 
than  once  taken  back  a  disreputable  husband  whom  she 
always  professed  to  dislike.  Aid  was  given  sparingly  and 
intermittently  during  his  absences;  but  finally  the 
woman  in  a  burst  of  frankness  told  the  secretary  that  she 
had  never  felt  confident  the  society  would  stand  behind 
her.  Each  time  the  man  came  back  with  money  in  his 
hand,  she  cheated  herself  into  believing  that  he  meant 
"a  new  leaf."  A  budget  was  worked  out  with  her,  and  a 
promise  given  of  an  adequate  income  as  long  as  she  kept 
her  husband  away.  She  has  faithfully  kept  her  side  of 
the  bargain  for  over  three  years.  "  ^ 

The  extension  in  many  states  of  "state  aid  to 

62 


CHANGES  OF  EMPHASIS  IN  TREATMENT 

mothers"  to  cover  deserted  wives  is  an  indica- 
tion of  this  changed  view.  In  most  states,  how- 
ever, s^ome  safeguards  are  set  up;  the  wife  must 
take  out  a  warrant,  and  a  given  number  of  yealk 
must  elapse  during  which  the  man  shall  not 
have  been  heard  from,  before  state  aid  can  be 
granted  to  the  wife. 

Finally,  it  is  more  clearly  recognized  than 
formerly  that  the  time  to  "close  the  case"  is 
not  just  after  the  man's  return. 

A  case  supervisor  speaks  of  "the  strong  temptation  to 
close  our  records  as  soon  as  relief  becomes  unnecessary. 
The  man's  return  to  the  family  is  often  the  critical  point 
at  which  there  is  need  of  skilful  and  sympathetic  friend- 
ship. These  cases  cry  out  for  continued  treatment.  We 
need  to  think  more  humanely  about  all  the  unsettling 
elements  in  our  urban  civilization  and  to  see  that  all  the 
nice  individual  adjustments  that  as  case  workers  we  can 
make  are  made.  If  the  man's  work  gives  him  no  oppor- 
tunity for  self-expression,  what  attempt  are  we  making  to 
give  him  such  opportunities  outside  his  work,  to  connect 
him  with  a  trade  union,  with  clubs  and  with  fraternities? 
How  much  are  we  thinking  about  cures  for  inebriates, 
psychoanalysis,  vocational  guidance,  recreation?" 

Briefly,  then,  changes  in  the  social  worker's 
attitude    toward    treatment    have    meant    less, 
5  63 


-V 


BROKEN  HOMES 

emphasis  on  punitive  and  repressive  measures, 
more  consideration  of  the  man's  point  of  view, 
less  tendency  to  press  court  action,  at  l^ast  in 
#e  beginning,  fewer  commitments  of  children, 
a  more  liberal  relief  policy  (partly  as  a  preven- 
tive of  "forced  reconciliations"),  and  lastly, 
longer  supervision  after  the  man  has  resumed 
support  of  his  family. 


64 


IV 

FINDING  THE  DESERTING  HUSBAND 

\  FEW  years  ago  a  young  Jewish  woman  re- 
^  ^  ported  to  the  National  Desertion  Bureau* 
that  her  husband  had  left  her  and  their  children. 

The  couple  had  never  got  on  well,  and  the  man  seemed 
to  have  been  a  melancholy  and  impractical  fellow.  The 
usual  methods  of  the  Bureau  brought  no  results  in  finding 
the  missing  husband.  Then  the  wife  was  more  carefully 
questioned,  and  urged  to  tell  all  that  she  could  recall  or 
had  heard  about  her  husband's  early  hfe,  his  tastes  and 
peculiarities.  Among  other  things  the  Bureau  learned 
that  the  man's  father  had  died  in  America  years  ago,  hav- 
ing come  here  to  make  a  home  for  the  family  left  behind 
in  Russia.  The  boy  had  grown  up  in  ignorance  of  the 
place  of  his  father's  death  and  burial,  and,  as  the  eldest 
son,  he  felt  it  his  duty  to  find  his  father's  grave.  Filled 
with  this  idea  he  came  to  America  as  soon  as  he  was 

*  The  National  Desertion  Bureau,  356  Second  Avenue, 
New  York,  acts  in  a  legal  advisory  capacity  to  Jewish 
organizations  in  matters  of  domestic  relations;  it  also 
seeks  out  Jewish  family  deserters,  with  a  view  to  assuring 
their  rehabilitation  or,  failing  this,  their  punishment. 

65 


BROKEN  HOMES 

grown  and  landed  in  New  York,  but  his  few  poor  clues 
availed  him  little  against  the  dijSiculties  of  poverty  and  a 
new  and  complex  environment.  In  the  end  he  gave  up 
the  search,  married,  and  settled  down  on  the  east  side. 
After  the  sudden  quarrel  which  led  to  his  leaving  home, 
his  wife  thought  it  possible  that  his  old  obsession  might 
have  reawakened.  The  Bureau,  supplied  with  the  clues 
in  question,  had  little  difficulty  in  discovering  the  father's 
burial  place  in  St.  Louis;  and  the  cemetery  authorities 
promised  to  send  word  if  the  missing  husband  should 
appear.  Sure  enough,  a  short  time  afterward  he  arrived, 
and,  after  visiting  the  grave,  returned,  not  unwillingly, 
and  took  up  his  family  duties  again  under  the  supervision 
of  a  probation  officer. 

The  flexibility  of  method  and  the  readiness  to 
see  and  utilize  new  resources  which  are  dis- 
played  in  the  foregoing  account  are  great  assets 
to  the  one  who  must  institute  search  for  a  rniss- 
ing  husband  and  father. 

The  thing  that  sets  desertion  cases  apart  in  a 
class  of  peculiar  technical  difficulty  for  the  case 
worker  is  not  simply  that  the  man  is  away 
from  his  family.  There  is  no  man  to  deal  with 
in  a  widow's  family,  but  widows'  families  present 
comparatively  simple  problems.  The  deserter, 
though  absent,  is  still  not  only  a  potential  but 

66 


FINDING  THE  DESERTING  HUSBAND 

also  a  real  factor  in  the  family  situation.  The 
plans  of  the  family  are  often  made  with  one  eye 
to  his  return;  he  is  the  unseen  but  plainly  felt 
obstacle  to  much  that  the  social  worker  wants 
to  accomplish.  The  children  look  forward  to 
his  reappearance  with  dread  or  with  joy  (for 
many  deserters  have  a  way  with  them,  decidedly, 
and  are  welcome  visitors  to  their  children).  In 
short,  he  is  usually  at  the  key  point  in  the  situa- 
tion. No  plan  can  safely  be  made  that  leaves 
him  out,  but — there's  the  rub! — you  cannot  in- 
clude him  at  once  for  he  is  not  to  be  reached, 
certainly  not  at  the  outset.  The  discovery  of 
the  deserter's  whereabouts  is  not  only  the  first  » 
birt  the  most  urgent  of  the  problems  that  con- 
front the  worker,  who  tries  to  deal  with  a  de- 
serted family.  Unless  he  can  be  found  the  whole 
plan  rests  upon  shifting  sand. 

A  prompt  and  vigorous  effort  to  find  the  i 
absentee  is  therefore  a  first  requisite  in  dealing 
with  family  desertion.  Unfortunately,  many 
case  workers,  having  started  bravely  and  ex- 
hausted the  first  crop  of  clues,  become  discour- 
aged and  fall  back  on  the  supposition  that  the 

67   ■    • 


BROKEN  HOMES 

man  is  permanently  out  of  the  scene,  and  that 
it  only  remains  to  make  plans  for  the  family. 
Numberless  case  histories  attest  the  unwisdom 
of  this  assumption.  It  is  not  making  an  extreme 
statement  to  say  that,  as  long  as  the  family 
remains  under  active  care  or  until  the  missing 
man  is  proved  to  be  dead,  the  effort  to  find  him 
should  not  be  abandoned.  Mr.  Carstens,  in 
discussing  this  point,  says: 

To  carry  on  this  search  persistently  is  the  great  safe- 
guard. It  is  rare  when  in  the  course  of  a  few  months  the 
true  state  of  affairs  will  not  have  been  revealed,  though  it 
may  have  been  quite  hidden  at  the  start.* 

This  is  not .  to  say  that  time  must  be  spent 
unprofitably  in  going  over  the  same  ground,  or 
that  out-of-town  agencies  must  be  badgered  to 
reinvestigate  old  clues.  But  the  frame  of  mind 
that  pigeonholes  the  whole  matter  as  having 
been  attended  to  must  be  shunned  by  the  social 
worker,  who  should  be  always  on  the  alert  for 
new  clues  and  prompt  to  follow  them  up.  An 
example  of  a  vigorous  and  persistent  search  for 

*  C.  C.  Carstens,  Proceedings  of  the  Fifth  New  York 
State  Conference  of  Charities  and  Correction,  1904,  p.  196. 

68 


FINDING  THE  DESERTING  HUSBAND 

a  deserter  is  taken  from  the  files  of  the  National 
Desertion  Bureau.* 

Adolph  R.  deserted  his  wife  and  their  six  little  children 
on  September  i,  1912.  He  was  traced  to  Philadelphia, 
but  had  left  there  the  day  before  the  tidings  reached  New 
York.  Information  was  obtained  from  fellow-employes 
which  led  to  the  belief  that  he  had  gone  to  Tampa, 
Florida.  Inquiry  was  directed  to  the  rabbi  in  that  city, 
but  again  the  information  was  disheartening,  since  it  dis- 
closed the  fact  that  once  more  R.  had  "left  the  day 
before."  The  rabbi  telegraphed  that  the  deserter  had 
evidently  gone  to  Lakewood,  Florida,  and  that  he  could 
be  found  in  that  place.  Immediately  the  Bureau  dis- 
patched a  telegram  to  its  representative  there,  only  to 
find  that  R.  had  merely  passed  through  Lakewood  en 
route  to  Bartow,  Florida.  When  the  inquiry  reached 
Bartow  it  was  learned  that  R.  had  left  a  few  days  before, 
and  that  he  was  on  his  way  to  Memphis,  Tennessee.  The 
Jewish  Charities  of  Memphis  made  investigation  at  the 
cigar  factories  of  that  city,  but  reported  that  no  person 
bearing  the  name  of  R.  or  resembling  him  had  been  seen 
in  their  city.  No  further  clue  to  his  whereabouts  could 
be  secured. 

Months  later  R.  applied  to  the  Jewish  Charities  of 
Louisville  for  transportation  to  New  York,  making  an 
entirely  false  statement  about  his  family. 

This  statement  was  telegraphed  to  the  Bureau  and  no 
time  was  lost  in  securing  a  warrant.    Louisville  was  noti- 

*  See  p.  65,  footnote. 

69 


BROKEN  HOMES 

fied  by  wire  to  arrest,  but  again  a  telegram  came: "  Adolph 
R.  left  city.  Learned  from  Cigarmakers'  Union  head- 
quarters he  went  to  Cincinnati.  Wire  Joe  Rapp,  13 16 
Walnut  Street,  Cincinnati  Union  Headquarters.  Man 
said  he  was  going  to  Cincinnati  or  Indianapolis.  Man 
joined  union  Richmond,  Va.,  November  19,  191 1,  and 
reports  to  union  in  all  cities."  The  Desertion  Bureau 
immediately  telegraphed  to  Cincinnati  and  Indianapolis. 
The  United  Jewish  Charities  of  Cincinnati  working  to- 
gether with  the  labor  union  lost  little  time  in  effecting  his 
arrest. 

Many  theories  about  family  desertion  have 
sufTered  a  change  in  recent  years.  One  of  these 
relates  to  the  "collusive  desertion."  Social 
workers  in  training  used  formerly  to  be  taught 
that  the  first  place  to  look  for  the  deserter 
was  around  the  corner,  where  he  could  slip 
back  into  the  house  and  partake  of  charitable 
bounty  or,  at  the  very  least,  keep  close  watch 
of  his  family  and  return  if  any  serious  danger 
threatened  them.  Although  the  collusive  deser- 
tion seems  to  have  been  a  frequent  happening  in 
the  past,  there  is  almost  unanimous  testimony 
from  case  workers  at  the  present  time  that  it 
is  not  common.  "I  don't  come  across  an  in- 
stance once  a  year,"  said  one  case  worker. 

70 


FINDING  THE  DESERTING  HUSBAND 

Another,  after  searching  her  memory,  recalled  what 
seemed  to  her  one  instance  of  real  collusion.  A  woman, 
pregnant  and  seeming  to  be  in  great  destitution,  applied 
to  a  family  social  work  society  in  a  small  city  for  help. 
Careful  search  did  not  discover  the  man's  whereabouts — 
he  seemed  to  have  disappeared  without  leaving  a  trace, 
and  his  wife  professed  ignorance.  Some  two  weeks  after 
this  the  visitor,  calling  late,  met  a  man  on  the  stairs  who 
proved  to  be  the  missing  husband.  Times  were  hard  and 
he  was  out  of  a  job,  so  he  had  taken  to  the  attic  of  their 
house,  and  had  kept  so  strictly  incommunicado  that  not 
only  the  society  but  the  neighbors  had  been  deceived. 

Out  of  twenty  or  more  case  workers  in  dif- 
ferent cities  whose  experience  was  sought  on 
this  point,  nearly  all  felt  that  the  warnings 
against  possible  collusion  which  used  to  be  given 
to  young  workers  no  longer  needed  to  be  em- 
phasized. Testimony  in  the  other  direction  is, 
however,  advanced  by  the  National  Desertion 
Bureau,  which  found  that  about  lo  per  cent  of 
the  applications  made  in  1910  to  the  United 
Hebrew  Charities  of  New  York  for  relief  be- 
cause of  desertion  were  collusive. 

It  should  be  said,  however,  that  one  form  of 
collusion  is  common  to  the  experience  of  case 
workers — that  of  the  wife  who  knows  where  her 

71 


BROKEN  HOMES 

husband  is,  or  has  a  very  good  idea,  but  does 
not  want  him  to  return  and  so  keeps  her  knowl- 
edge to  herself.  "In  two  of  our  regular  allow- 
ance families,"  writes  the  case  supervisor  of  a 
family  agency,  "we  discovered — one  quite  inci- 
dentally, one  after  the  allowance  had  been  dis- 
continued for  other  reasons — that  the  wife  had 
had  reports  regarding  the  man  which  we  might 
have  followed  up  had  we  known  of  them  earlier. 
It  could  hardly  be  called  collusion — it  was  mere 
indifference."    A  probation  officer  writes: 

"At  the  present  time  we  have  under  investigation  a 
family  where  the  man  has  been  away  from  home  for  two 
years  and  his  whereabouts  during  the  last  year  have  been 
known  to  his  wife.  He  has  been  living  in  a  suburb  of  the 
city  and  working  steadily  during  that  time.  The  woman 
has  received  adequate  aid  from  public  and  private  organ- 
izations. She  has  been  content  to  accept  that  rather  than 
notify  the  authorities  and  have  her  husband  required  to 
meet  the  responsibility.  The  man  on  his  part  was  aware 
that  his  family  was  being  supported,  and  while  there  was 
no  agreement  between  the  parties  regarding  it,  neverthe- 
less the  arrangement  apparently  met  with  mutual 
approval." 

To  guard  against  this  and  similar  omissions 
on  the  woman's  part,  more  than  one  agency 

72 


FINDING  THE  DESERTING  HUSBAND 

which  deals  with  family  desertion  requires  the 
deserted  wife  to  sign  an  affidavit  that  she  has 
given  all  the  information  she  possesses. 

Although  in  practice  the  possibility  of  a  col- 
lusive desertion  is  not  the  first  and  most  im- 
portant thing  to  keep  in  mind,  it  is  frequent 
enough  not  to  be  entirely  forgotten.  And  for 
yet  other  reasons  it  is  well  to  keep  a  watchful 
eye  upon  the  neighborhood  in  which  the  family 
is  living  for  reports  about  the  man.  Often  ob- 
scure impulses  seem  to  bring  him  back;  jealousy 
of  the  wife  or  a  desire  to  show  himself  in  a 
spirit  of  bravado,  or  even  sometimes  a  fugitive 
affection  for  the  children  he  has  abandoned  may 
cause  him  to  appear  in  the  neighborhood.  "The  ^ 
deserter,  like  the  murderer,  harks  back  to  the 
scene  of  his  misdeeds"  was  the  generalization  of 
one  district  secretary. 

Even  when  he  does  not  appear  in  the  flesh 
the  deserter  may  seek  news  of  his  family.    "One 
deserter    was    found    through    the    Attendan^H^ 
Department   [of  the   public  school   system]   to 
which  he  wrote  after  a  three  years'  absence  ask- 


73 


BROKEN  HOMES 

ing  the  address  of  one  of  the  children  of  whom 
he  was  especially  fond." 

There  is  little  in  the  literature  of  the  subject 
covering  methods  of  discovering  deserters,  nor 
do  case  workers  generally  appear  to  have  devel- 
oped a  special  technique.  The  decided  reaction 
against  detective  methods  which  has  been  ap- 
parent in  the. profession  during  later  years  may 
help  to  explain  this  fact.  Most  social  workers 
feel  a  subconscious  sense  of  injustice  in  having 
to  do  this  work  at  all,  since  it  is  properly  a 
function  of  the  police.  Prosecutors  and  police 
officials  generally  take  very  little  interest  in 
following  up  deserters,  and  have  little  idea  of 
giving  any  treatment  to  the  deserter  who  has 
been  found  other  than  arraignment  and  convic- 
tion. It  is  difficult  for  the  probation  officer  or 
the  family  case  worker  to  hold  up  the  machinery 
of  the  law,  once  it  has  been  started,  and  to  do 
this  long  enough  to  find  out  whether  some  other 
f^prm  of  treatment  best  suits  the  case.  For 
these  reasons  the  social  worker  usually  prefers 
to  do  or  else  is  forced  to  do  the  work  of  the 


74 


FINDING  THE  DESERTING  HUSBAND 

detective  in  desertion  cases  up  to  the  point 
where  arrest  is  in  his  judgment  necessary. 

A  probation  officer  in  D found  that  he  could  not 

work  through  the  local  police  in  searching  for  a  certain 
deserter,  because  the  missing  man's  political  affiliations 
made  them  friendly  to  him.  The  probation  officer  knew 
in  a  general  way  that  the  man  was  hkely  to  be  in  the  city 

of  S in  the  same  state,  so  he  secured  a  warrant  and 

sent  it  with  such  slight  clues  as  were  at  hand,  to  a  pro- 
bation officer  of  that  city  who  was  successful  in  the 
search.    Avoiding  the  usual  procedure,  the  warrant  was 

served  by  the  police  in  S .    ''Several  instances  of 

this  kind  have  occurred  lately,"  writes  the  probation 
officer  at  D . 

The  necessity  of  doing  the  detective's  work 
raises  at  once  the  question  of  how  far  the  social 
worker  can  afford  to  adopt  the  detective's 
methods.  If  reformation  of  the  man  is  the  end 
sought  it  would  seem  an  axiom  that  he  must  be 
given  from  the  first  every  reason  to  believe  that 
the  social  worker  will  play  fair.  "We  are  very 
careful  never  to  break  a  promise  we  have  made 
to  a  man,"  says  an  agency  which  deals  with 
many  deserters.  The  same  agency,  as  illustra- 
tion of  its  own  methods  in  seeking  deserting 

75 


BROKEN  HOMES 

men,  instances  the  case  of  a  man  who  was  being 
shielded  by  his  sister,  but  was  discovered  by  an 
officer  who  scraped  acquaintance  with  her  Httle 
boy  and  asked  innocently,  "Where's  your  uncle 
Jack  now?"  In  another  case  the  officer  learned 
of  a  man's  whereabouts  through  his  relatives  by 
representing  himself  as  a  lawyer's  clerk  calling 
about  a  legacy  which  had  been  left  the  man. 
In  still  another  case,  reported  by  a  different 
agency,  a  man  who  had  deserted  his  family  was 
known  to  be  receiving  mail  through  the  general 
delivery  of  another  city.  It  was  ascertained  that 
he  was  writing  to  a  woman  in  his  home  town. 
A  letter  was  sent  to  him  in  care  of  General 
Delivery  asking  him  to  meet  the  writer  (who  was 
represented  to  be  the  young  woman  with  whom 
he  was  corresponding).  The  wife  was  sent  to 
that  city  and  she  and  the  local  probation  officer 
met  the  man  and  served  the  warrant. 

There  is,  of  course,  something  to  be  said  in 
favor  of  the  use  of  such  methods.  The  protec- 
tion of  the  weak  and  helpless  may  justify,  in 
certain  circumstances,  any  subterfuge.  But  the 
detective  who  arrests  the  criminal  in  ways  like 

76 


FINDING  THE  DESERTING  HUSBAND 

these  is  seeking  his  punishment  and  nothing  else. 
There  is  no  thought  in  that  case  of  establishing 
personal  relations  and  effecting  the  long,  slow 
process  of  reformation.  When  social  workers  use 
such  methods  it  should  be  in  the  full  realization 
that  they  are  foregoing  any  future  advantage  of 
straight  dealing  with  the  man.  To  capture  a 
man  by  a  trick  is  to  declare  war  on  him;  and, 
in  his  mind,  the  social  worker  and  the  police- 
man then  stand  in  the  same  place.  "I'd  have 
him  there  to  meet  you,"  said  a  deserter's  chum 
to  a  woman  visitor,  "if  I  wasn't  sure,  in  spite 
of  your  straight  talk,  you'd  have  a  bull  waiting 
behind  a  tree."* 

*  This  paragraph  was  submitted  to  the  two  agencies 
which  furnished  the  illustrations.  Their  replies  are  in  part 
as  follows: 

Agency  A. — "Your  criticism  ...  is  purely  theo- 
retical and  has  no  basis  in  fact.  The  deserter  is  a  knowing 
violator  of  the  law,  and  while  he  does  not  welcome  it,  he 
regards  his  arrest  as  only  a  question  of  time.  He  is  playing 
the  game  of  'hide  and  seek,'  and  he  is  applying  every  trick 
and  subterfuge  to  avoid  detection.  He  is  not  disturbed  if 
he  has  been  caught  in  a  police  trap.  Our  experience  has 
been  that  in  such  cases  where  he  has  tried  to  outwit  the 
police,  and  the  police  finally  have  '  beaten  him  to  the  game,' 
he  compliments  his  captor.    This  is  a  common  characteris- 

77 


^^ 


BROKEN  HOMES 

What  are  some  concrete  suggestions,  devel- 
oped from  the  experience  of  case  workers,  as  to 
how  to  proceed  in  searching  for  deserting  men? 
A  full  and  careful  talk  with  the  wife  is  the  first 
requisite,  supplemented  by  equally  thorough 
interviews  with  any  near  relatives  who  can  be 
reached.  The  case  worker  should  be  familiar 
with  the  Questionnaire  on  the  Deserted  Family 
in  Mary  E.  Richmond's  Social  Diagnosis.  A 
description  and  if  possible  a  photograph  of  the 
man  should  be  procured.  Where  several  out-of- 
town  clues  are  to  be  followed,  copies  of  the 
photograph  can  be  cheaply  made,  and  at  least 
one  bureau  for  dealing  with  desertion  ca^es 
makes  this  part  of  its  routine  procedure. 

tic  of  the  criminal,  a  sort  of  negative  bravado.  When  the 
deserter  is  arrested,  all  he  can  hope  for  and  expect  is  a  fair 
deal." 

Agency  B. — "I  have  seen  very  few  individuals  in  the 
course  of  my  experience  who  could  not  be  brought  to  see 
the  right  viewpoint  if  they  were  intelligently  approached, 
even  though  the  probation  officer  had  considerable  to  do 
with  their  arrest.  It  is  in  my  opinion  not  altogether  impor- 
tant what  occurs  before  the  man's  arrest  but  how  he  is 
treated  after  he  comes  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  proba- 
tion officials." 

78 


FINDING  THE  DESERTING  HUSBAND 

If  it  is  a  first  desertion,  or  if  there  is  room  for 
doubt  whether  an  accident  may  have  befallen' 
the  man,  police  and  hospital  records  should  be 
looked  up. 

A  woman  with  four  children  applied  to  a  charity 
organization  society,  saying  her  husband  had  disappeared. 
There  was  a  rumor  that  someone  had  seen  him  fall  off  the 
dock  while  intoxicated,  but  no  attempt  had  been  made  to 
confirm  this  and  the  family  was  treated  as  a  deserted 
family  for  some  months,  until  the  man's  body  was  found 
in  the  river  and  identified. 

If  there  have  been  previous  desertions,  it  is 
extremely  important  to  secure  their  history. 
The  reasons  that  moved  the  man  once  are 
likely  to  do  so  again,  and  he  is  apt  to  return 
to  his  former  haunts  and  be  seen  by  former^ 
friends  and  acquaintances. 

The  deserting  man,  unless  he  elopes  with  an- 
other woman,  generally  goes  to  some  cheap 
lodging  house  or,  if  of  foreign  birth,  he  may 
seek  out  the  quarter  where  those  of  his  national- 
ity reside  and  become  a  lodger  in  a  family  in 
which  his  native  tongue  is  spoken.  Hence,  a 
canvass  of  the  lodging  houses — armed  with  a 
6  79 


BROKEN  HOMES 

photograph  if  possible — is  a  desirable  first  step. 
All  of  the  social  worker's  casual  acquaintance 
with  the  foreign  quarters  of  his  city  comes  into 
play  in  the  search.  If  the  man  is  in  the  city 
some  "landsmann,"  some  "paesano"  has  seen 
him,  and  knows  where  he  is  to  be  found.  It 
may  even  narrow  down  to  finding  the  particular 
house  on  the  particular  street  where  the  immi- 
grants from  a  particular  village  in  Sicily  or 
Galicia  have  their  abode.  The  pool-rooms  and 
saloons  of  the  district  can  often  be  made  to 
yield  information,  especially  if  a  man  visitor 
can  canvass  them.  In  dealing  in  this  way  with 
mere  acquaintances  of  the  man,  it  is  usually  not 
necessary  for  the  social  worker  to  tell  who  he 
himself  is  or  to  state  the  purpose  of  his  inquiry. 
In  talking  with  relatives  or  close  friends,  how- 
ever, it  is  often  best  to  lay  all  cards  on  the  table 
and  convince  one's  listener  first  of  all  that  the 
man  sought  will  have  fair  treatment  and  a 
chance  to  state  his  side  of  the  case  before  any 
proceedings  are  begun  against  him» 

Even  a  relative  who  has  never  been  seen  may 
sometimes  be  induced  to  act  effectively. 

80 


FINDING  THE  DESERTING  HUSBAND 

A  man  who  deserted  his  wife  and  family  was  reported 
to  have  gone  to  his  brother  in  another  city.  Nothing 
definite  was  known  of  the  brother  except  that  he  was  a 
telephone  lineman.  No  address  could  be  secured  through 
the  company,  but  they  agreed  to  forward  a  letter  to  this 
relative.  He  never  answered;  shortly,  however,  the 
deserter  reappeared,  having  been  persuaded  to  return 
voluntarily  by  the  brother  to  whom  the  letter  had  been 
addressed. 

During  the  war  local  draft  boards  were  of  the 
greatest  assistance  in  finding  deserting  men. 
Election  records  too  have  been  of  real  value  in 
the  case  of  men  who  were  voters.  Passports 
and  immigration  records  may  in  some  instances 
yield  information  helpful  in  establishing  where- 
abouts. Where  there  is  actually  a  warrant  out 
for  the  man's  arrest,  the  active  co-operation  of 
the  postal  authorities  can  sometimes  be  secured 
in  furnishing  return  addresses  on  envelopes  de- 
livered to  persons  with  whom  the  culprit  is 
known  to  be  in  correspondence. 

Problems  of  family  desertion  involving  men 
in  service  during  the  war  were  in  the  main 
handled  by  the  Red  Cross  Home  Service.  Be- 
fore the  war,  private  case  working  agencies  had 

8i 


BROKEN  HOMES 

learned  that  the  regular  Army  and  the  Navy 
often  seemed  desirable  havens  to  would-be 
family  deserters.  The  difficulties  of  finding 
them  there  were  great,  owing  to  the  fact  that 
they  often  enlisted  as  single  men  under  an  as- 
sumed name.  It  has  usually  been  possible  to 
gain  excellent  co-operation  from  the  military 
authorities  if  there  are  any  clues  whatever. 

The  desertion  bureau  of  a  family  social  work  society 
learned  that  a  deserting  man  had  expressed  a  desire  long 
before  he  left  his  family  to  enlist  in  the  Army.  Several 
letters  were  exchanged  with  the  War  Department,  and 
the  man  was  finally  found  to  be  with  a  company  serving  in 
the  Canal  Zone.  As  he  had  made  misrepresentations 
when  he  enlisted,  the  War  Department  was  willing  to 
transfer  him  from  Panama  to  a  camp  within  the  limits  of 
the  city  where  the  desertion  had  taken  place  and  there 
discharge  him.  This  brought  the  absconder  within  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  local  courts  and  made  it  possible  to 
arrest  him  as  soon  as  he  was  outside  the  bounds  of  the 
camp. 

It  will  repay  the  visitor  to  make  not  only  a 
careful  study  of  the  deserting  man's  employment 
history  but  also  to  learn  something  about  the 
trade  he  follows.     A  cloakmaker,  for  instance, 

82 


FINDING  THE  DESERTING  HUSBAND 

who  deserts  in  New  York  City  is  likely  to  be 
found  in  Cleveland,  for  these  are  the  two  centers 
of  the  cloak  branch  of  the  garment  trade.  Cer- 
tain seasonal  occupations  give  the  periodical  de- 
serter a  great  opportunity.  Among  these  are 
hop  picking,  berry  picking,  and  lumbering.  The 
amusement  parks  near  the  large  cities  also  fur- 
nish occupation  for  the  seasonal  deserter.  The 
case  worker  cannot  be  expected  to  have  such 
knowledge  at  his  finger-tips,  but  he  can  go  to 
people  who  know  about  the  fluctuations  of  par- 
ticular trades — to  employers,  union  officials  or 
fellow-workmen  who  may  throw  light  on  a  de- 
serter's movements.  The  story  of  Adolph  R.*  is 
an  excellent  illustration  of  the  help  that  may  be 
obtained  from  trades  unions  and  from  fellow- 
workmen.  A  family  welfare  bureau  in  a  western 
city  writes ; 

"In  one  instance  a  blacksmith's  union  published  the 
picture  of  the  deserting  man  in  its  official  journal  and 
asked  that  information  regarding  him  be  sent  to  the  local 
unit  here.  This  proved  successful.  In  another  instance 
a  union  gave  us  access  to  its  books  and  helped  us  to  trace 

*  See  p.  69. 

83 


BROKEN  HOMES 

all  the  men  of  a  given  name  listed  there.  By  this  means 
we  found  the  man  we  were  looking  for.  One  man,  a 
vaudeville  performer,  we  traced  through  the  Bill  Board 
(a  trade  paper)  by  discovering  the  movements  of  the  show 
with  which  he  had  been  connected." 

Another  society  succeeded  in  getting  a  cer- 
:ain  trade  union  to  post  a  description  and  photo- 
graph of  a  missing  man  on  its  bulletin  boards. 
This  aided  in  finding  the  man.  Fraternal  orders 
may  be  used  in  the  same  way,  though  for  many 
reasons  they  cannot  be  so  helpful  as  the  trades 
unions. 

Employment  agencies  should  not  be  forgotten 
in  seeking  to  trace  a  man  through  his  industrial 
record.  The  extension  of  the  federal  employ- 
ment service,  with  free  inter-city  communica- 
tion, should  be  of  assistance  in  getting  upon  the 
track  of  deserters. 

The  co-operation  of  newspapers  can  be  secured 
to  good  effect  in  tracing  missing  men. 

Herbert  McCann,  who  had  been  doing  railway  con- 
struction in  Russia,  returned  to  this  country  and  dis- 
appeared while  en  route  from  an  eastern  city  to  his  home 
in  Canada.  There  was  reason  to  think  that  he  might 
have  left  the   train  in  an  intoxicated  condition  at  an 

84 


FINDING  THE  DESERTING  HUSBAND 

important  junction  point ;  and  the  family  social  agency  of 
that  city  was  asked  to  trace  him.  No  information  was 
secured  from  the  police,  lodging  houses,  emplo3mient 
agencies,  etc.,  and  finally  the  following  advertisement  was 
inserted  in  the  local  paper:  "Information  Wanted — Any- 
one knowing  the  whereabouts  of  Herbert  McCann,  Mon- 
treal, who  returned  from  Russia  in  June,  will  confer  a 
favor  upon  his  family  by  notifying  Social  Service  Build- 
ing, 34  Grand  Street."  Six  days  later  a  reply  was 
received  from  a  man  in  a  nearby  town,  and  McCaim  was 
found  at  work  in  a  factory  there. 


More  than  upon  any  other  method  the  Na- 
tional Desertion  Bureau  depends  on  the  publi- 
cation of  pictures  and  short  newspaper  para- 
graphs. As  this  Bureau  deals  entirely  with 
Jewish  deserters,  it  works  chiefly  through  the 
Yiddish  newspapers.  Its  ''Gallery  of  Missing 
Husbands"  is  a  regular  weekly  feature  in  some 
of  the  better  known  of  these  journals,  and  at- 
tracts increasingly  wide  attention.  The  Bureau 
estimates  that  70  per  cent  of  the  deserters  which 
it  finds  are  discovered  through  the  publication 
of  pictures.  It  should  be  remembered,  however, 
that  this  Bureau  is  dealing  with  a  selected 
group,  who  know  a  great  deal  about  one  an- 

85 


BROKEN  HOMES 

other,  live  closely  together,  follow  In  the  main 
only  a  few  trades,  and  read  only  a  limited  num- 
ber of  foreign-language  newspapers.  Whether 
anything  like  the  same  results  could  be  obtained 
by  the  same  methods  applied  to  deserting  hus- 
bands of  many  different  national  and  social 
backgrounds  is  open  to  question. 

Since  most  deserters  leave  the  city,  if  not  the 
state,  the  social  worker  who  is  dealing  with  the 
family  problem  Is  often  not  the  same  person  to 
whom  is  delegated  the  task  of  finding  the  man. 
This  fact  makes  necessary  the  most  careful  and 
sympathetic  co-operation  between  the  social 
workers  or  agencies,  which  must  work  together 
at  long  range  upon  the  problem.  In  the  case 
of  Herbert  McCann,  just  cited,  not  less  than 
four  family  social  work  societies  were  concerned 
— three  In  the  United  States  and  one  in. Canada. 
This  necessitated  keeping  in  the  closest  touch, 
by  letter  and  telegram,  so  that  each  was  in- 
formed of  the  doings  of  the  others.  Such  a 
piece  of  work  calls  for  a  common  body  of  expe- 
rience and  technique  among  the  workers  con- 
cerned, amounting  almost  to  an  unwritten  under- 

86 


FINDING  THE  DESERTING  HUSBAND 

standing  as  to  how  the  work  should  be  done. 
Nothing  makes  more  fascinating  reading  than 
the  record  of  a  quick,  touch-and-go  investiga- 
tion, such  as  is  presented  in  the  finding  of  a 
deserter  conducted  by  skilled  case  workers  who 
are  accustomed  to  work  together.  Much  can, 
under  these  circumstances,  be  taken  for  granted 
or  left  to  the  discretion  of  the  worker  or  agency 
whose  help  is  being  sought.  There  are  in- 
stances, however,  where  no  such  common  under- 
standing exists,  and  where  the  home-town  agency 
has  to  work  through  people  with  little  social 
training  or  with  training  of  a  type  which  defi- 
nitely unfits  them  properly  to  approach  the  de- 
serting man.  It  is  a  distressing  experience  to 
know  that  a  man  has  slipped  through  one's 
fingers,  been  frightened  off  or  alienated,  by 
poor  work  at  the  other  end.  Are  there  any 
ways  to  reduce  the  number  of  these  mischances? 
Even  with  the  closest  co-operation  among  case 
workers  of  ability  in  different  cities  the  results 
are  not  always  as  favorable,  for  obvious  reasons, 
as  if  the  person  who  knows  the  family  were  the 
one  to  find  and  interview  the  man.     More  and 

87 


i 


BROKEN  HOMES 

more  it  is  realized  that  money  and  time  spent 
in  going  to  nearby  cities  to  do  one's  own  investi- 
gating is  well  spent.  There  used  to  be  a  feeling 
on  the  part  of  the  kindred  society  whose  terri- 
tory was  thus  invaded  that  this  action  argued 
lack  of  confidence  in  its  work;  but  as  the  im- 
portance of  the  personal  contact  has  been  more 
widely  recognized  this  feeling  has  disappeared. 
It  may  be  said  that  a  worker  who  goes  to  a 
strange  city  is  handicapped  by  her  lack  of  knowl- 
edge of  local  conditions.  This  is  of  course  true, 
and  it  may  easily  be  a  question  of  how  great  an 
advantage  will  be  gained  by  the  journey.  The 
worker  from  the  man's  home  town  can,  however, 
go  far  toward  overcoming  the  handicap  of  un- 
familiarity  with  the  place,  as  well  as  toward  dis- 
pelling any  sense  of  injury  in  the  mind  of  a  pro- 
fessional colleague,  by  calling  first  at  the  office  of 
the  local  agency  and  talking  the  problem  over 
thoroughly,  consulting  the  map  and  getting  what 
hints  the  local  agency  may  be  able  to  furnish. 
The  first  question  to  ask  oneself,  therefore,  is 
"Will  it  not  be  worth  while  to  go  myself?" 
If  for  geographical  or  other  reasons  this  is 

88 


FINDING  THE  DESERTING  HUSBAND 

impracticable,  the  next  thing  that  should  receive 
'careful  consideration  is  the  type  of  letter  to  be 
written.  If  the  situation  is  very  emergent  (as 
in  the  case  of  Adolph  R. cited  earlier),  the  request 
may  have  to  be  sent  by  telegraph;  but  even  in 
a  telegram  it  is  possible  to  convey  some  detail. 
To  try  to  save  money  by  confining  oneself  to 
ten  words  is  unwise.  If  time  admits,  a  letter  is 
more  desirable,  and  the  principle  of  its  construc- 
tion is  as  simple  as  the  Golden  Rule — give  the 
other  person  all  the  information  you  would  like 
to  have  if  you  were  receiving  the  letter.  Where 
the  correspondent  is  not  a  trained  social  worker, 
very  specific  suggestions  and  directions  should 
be  given  as  to  how  you  wish  the  man  dealt  with 
if  found. 

There  might  also  be  laid  down  a  Golden  Rule 
for  recipients  of  requests  from  out-of-town  that 
missing  men  be  traced.  "Give  the  request  right- 
of-way  over  your  regular  work,  and  send  back 
as  prompt  and  as  full  a  reply  as  you  would  wish 
yourself"  might  adequately  cover  the  case.  A 
reply  which  contains  a  history  of  actual  steps 
taken  as  well  as  results  gained,  is  more  satis- 

89 


BROKEN  HOMES 

factory  than  one  which  does  not.  Good  case 
workers  believe  in  reciprocity  and  treat  their 
neighbor's  problem  as  their  own.  "We  heard 
that  a  man  we  were  interested  in  was  in  the 
vicinity  of  a  certain  city,  and  in  the  effort  to 
trace  him  wrote  to  the  charity  organization 
society  in  that  place,  but  without  success.  Sev- 
eral months  later  the  charity  organization 
society  saw  an  item  in  a  newspaper  to  the  effect 
that  the  man  had  been  interned  as  an  enemy 
alien,  and  notified  us.  (This  shows  no  clever- 
ness on  our  part,  but  good  work  by  the  other 
society.) " 


90 


FURTHER  ITEMS  IN  THE  INVESTIGA- 
TION 

TT  IS  evident  that  the  need  of  finding  the  man 
"*■  strongly  influences  the  course  of  this  type  of 
investigation,  especially  in  the  early  stages.  Are 
there  other  considerations,  however,  that  modify 
the  technique  of  inquiry  into  these  desertion 
cases? 

There  is  one  crisis  in  the  lives  of  deserted 
families  which  is  not  duplicated  in  the  history 
of  any  other  group  suffering  from  social  dis- 
ability. This  crisis  is  the  period  of  the  first 
desertion.  "If  we  could  learn  what  preceded 
and  what  immediately  followed  the  first  deser- 
tion, we  should  know  much  more  than  we  do 
now  about  how  to  deal  with  the  problem," 
said  a  case  worker  who  has  studied  many  court 
records. 

The  number  of  subsequent  desertions  may  be 

91 


BROKEN  HOMES 

both  interesting  and  significant,  but  the  circum- 
stances attending  them  are  not  nearly  so  well 
worth  study  as  are  those  connected  with  the 
critical  first  break.  We  should  go  back  to  that 
spot  and  probe  for  causes.  The  common  prac- 
tice of  recording  carefully  what  led  up  to  a 
chronic  deserter's  last  desertion  before  his  family 
applied,  and  of  passing  over  his  earlier  deser- 
tions with  a  mere  mention  of  their  number  and 
dates,  puts  the  emphasis  in  the  wrong  place. 

We  must,  however,  go  further  back  than  the 
first  desertion  for  a  working  fund  of  knowledge. 
The  importance  of  knowing  what  were  the  in- 
/  fluences  surrounding  the  man  and  woman  in 
childhood  and  youth  has  already  been  dwelt 
upon  and  is  so  generally  conceded  as  to  need 
no  elaboration  here.  Of  especial  value  also  is 
careful  inquiry  into  the  period  of  courtship,  the 
circumstances  of  the  marriage,  and  the  history 
of  the  earlier  married  life.  "We  should  seek  to 
knp:^  what  first  drew  them  together,  as  well  as 
whal/s^forced  them  apart,"  said  a  thoughtful  dis- 
trict secretary.  The  notorious  unhappiness  of 
"forced  marriages"  leads  case  workers  to  scruti- 

92 


FURTHER  ITEMS  IN  THE  INVESTIGATION 

nize  the  relation  between  the  date  of  marriage 
and  the  date  of  the  birth  of  the  first  child.  It 
should  be  remembered,  however,  that  not  all 
marriages  which  are  entered  into  during  preg- 
nancy are  forced  marriages.  Studies  of  forced 
marriages,  so-called,  have  not  always  taken  this 
fact  into  consideration. 

The  superintendent  of  a  state  department  for 
aid  to  widows  made  a  study  of  the  vital  statistics 
of  500  families  chosen  at  random.  She  states 
that  "out  of  these  500  mothers  96,  or  19.2  per 
cent,  had  conceived  out  of  wedlock — or  rather 
before  wedlock — judging  by  the  date  of  mar- 
riage and  that  of  the  first  child's  birth.  All 
these  women  were  hard  working;  several  of 
good  standing  in  the  neighborhood  and  the  moth- 
ers of  large  families  of  children."  This  group  of 
homes  represents  by  no  means  an  unstable  seg- 
ment of  the  community,  since  in  most  instances 
the  couples  had  lived  together  in  reasonable  har- 
mony up  to  the  time  of  the  man's  death.  But 
do  the  96  represent  forced  marriages  as  ordi- 
narily thought  of  by  the  social  worker?  The 
study  just  quoted  has  no  facts  bearing  upon 

93 


BROKEN  HOMES 

this  point.  The  likeHhood  is  that  a  large  num- 
ber of  these  marriages,  termed  forced,  were  in 
reality  not  brought  about  by  outside  pressure  at 
all,  but  that  the  couple  were  intending  to  be 
married  at  the  time  the  pregnancy  occurred  and 
that  the  circumstances  were  condoned  by  public 
opinion  in  the  community  where  the  marriage 
took  place. 

The  Chicago  Juvenile  Protective  Association, 
however,  has  made  a  study  of  89  forced  mar- 
riages which  were  brought  about  in  connection 
with  bastardy  proceedings.  In  this  study  there 
is  no  attempt  to  differentiate  as  to  the  amount 
of  unwillingness  that  had  had  to  be  overcome 
on  the  part  of  either  the  man  or  the  woman. 
Fifty-three  of  the  women  said  that  the  marriage 
had  been  entered  into  willingly  on  their  part. 
Sixty  of  them  stated  that  they  were  well  treated 
by  their  husbands,  and  only  five  complained  of 
abuse  or  unkindness.  Out  of  the  89  marriages 
brought  about  after  proceedings  were  instituted 
69  of  the  couples  were  still  living  together  from 
one  to  two  years  later,  although  20,  or  nearly 


94 


FURTHER  ITEMS  IN  THE  INVESTIGATION 

one  in  five,  had  separated  before  the  two-year 
period  was  over.* 

A  young  woman  with  four  small  children  was  given 
advice  by  an  associated  charities  about  her  approaching 
confinement,  and  no  further  inquiry  was  made  at  that 
time.  She  was  Uving  apart  from  her  husband,  who  was 
contributing  a  small  amount  regularly.  The  income  was 
inadequate  and  it  was  decided  to  push  the  matter  further. 
Efiforts  to  verify  the  marriage  failed.  Finally,  a  tactful 
worker  was  able  to  learn  that  the  ceremony  had  not 
taken  place  until  after  the  birth  of  the  first  three  children, 
that  the  couple  had  had  sexual  relations  since  the 
woman  was  a  girl  of  fifteen,  and  that  her  relatives  had 
never  known  the  true  state  of  affairs.  The  man's  mother 
finally  interfered,  and  urged  her  son  not  to  live  with 
his  wife.  After  much  careful  work,  and  with  the  assist- 
ance of  a  co-operating  priest,  a  plan  was  worked  out 
which  brought  the  couple  together  and  induced  them  to 
move  away  from  the  region  in  which  the  man's  parents 
lived. 

A  probation  department  tells  of  a  case  where,  although 
the  man  was  unwilling  to  rnarry,  a  court  marriage  was 
brought  about;  the  man  made  his  payments  promptly 
and  observed  the  other  conditions  of  his  probation  faith- 
fully. The  woman,  however,  was  indifferent  to  any  efforts 
to  bring  about  a  reconciliation.    It  was  finally  discovered 

*  Bowen,  Louise  de  K.:  A  Study  of  Bastardy  Cases. 
Juvenile  Protective  Association  of  Chicago,  19 14. 

7  95 


BROKEN  HOMES 

that  she  was  immoral.  The  case  culminated  in  the  secur- 
ing of  a  divorce  by  the  man,  who  was  granted  the  custody 
of  the  children. 

The  same  department  submits  a  story  where  good 
results  were  obtained  in  subsequently  reconcihng,  after  a 
desertion,  a  couple  whose  marriage  had  been  of  the  forced 
description.  The  probation  department  arranged  for  the 
couple  to  Uve  apart  in  the  early  stage  of  probationary 
treatment.  A  careful  study  was  made  of  each  of  the 
individuals,  and  in  their  sincere  attachment  a  basis  was 
discovered  for  re-establishment  of  the  home  under  the 
supervision  of  the  probation  officer.  Five  years  later  the 
man  was  found  to  be  at  work  at  the  same  position  orig- 
inally obtained  for  him  by  the  probation  officer,  his 
salary  had  been  increased,  the  family  had  grown  in  num- 
ber and  were  getting  on  extremely  well. 

Although  the  term  "forced  marriage"  has 
come  to  have  the  meaning  given  above,  unions 
can  be  really  forced  where  there  has  been  no  sex 
relation  before  marriage.  In  one  unhappy  mar- 
riage which  came  finally  to  a  court  of  domestic 
relations,  the  wife  was  a  weak  and  timid  woman 
who  married  her  husband  because  of  her  fear 
that  he  would  carry  out  his  threat  and  kill  her 
and  himself  if  she  refused  him.  Another,  an 
Italian  girl,  was  married  at  fourteen  by  her 
parents  against  her  inclinations  to  a  well-to-do 

96 


FURTHER  ITEMS  IN  THE  INVESTIGATION 

man,  much  older  than  she,  who  was  a  lodger  in 
the  family.  As  she  grew  to  womanhood  their 
incompatibility  increased;  finally,  after  four 
children  had  been  born,  the  family  was  broken 
up  and  the  children  committed  to  institutions. 
There  are  compulsions  and  false  motives, 
operating  to  bring  about  marriages,  which  spring 
from  within  not  without;  and  the  discovery  of 
any  motive  for  the  marriage  except  mutual  in- 
clination has  significance  to  the  case  worker. 
Light  was  thrown  on  the  troubles  of  one  young 
couple  when  the  girl  confessed  that  she  had 
married  a  youth  for  whom  she  had  no  particular 
affection,  in  order  to  ''spite"  her  relatives  and 
assert  her  right  to  do  as  she  chose.  And  the 
unfortunate  young  woman  who  married  a  street 
evangelist  in  a  fit  of  religious  enthusiasm,  and 
because  of  his  promise  that  they  would  travel 
about  the  world  saving  souls  together,  had  a 
married  life  both  short  and  stormy.  The  so- 
called  "slacker  marriages"  of  the  few  months 
preceding  the  first  draft  in  19 17  illustrate  this 
point.      The    wreckage    of    these    marriages    is 


97 


BROKEN  HOMES 

already  drifting   in   increasing  amount   to   the 
courts  of  domestic  relations. 

One  of  the  most  important  items  in  desertion 
cases,  and  one  far  too  often  neglected,  is  the 
verification  of  the  marriage.  Much  seeming  in- 
difference and  confusion  on  this  point  is  prob- 
ably caused  by  the  quasi-legality  in  many  states 
of  common  law  marriages.  The  case  worker 
should  not  forget,  however,  that  a  common  law 
union  is  often  only  a  device  on  the  part  of  one 
or  the  other  of  the  two  to  avoid  prosecution  for 
bigamy.  When  it  is  established  that  the  mar- 
riage is  a  common  law  union,  a  strong  suspicion 
should  be  set  up  in  the  worker's  mind  that  there 
may  be  some  legal  barrier  to  a  ceremony,  and 
careful  inquiry  should  be  directed  along  this 
line.  Not  only  does  the  verification  of  a  mar- 
riage give  the  worker  a  sound  basis  on  which  to 
proceed  to  court  action  if  necessary,  but  the  copy 
of  the  actual  marriage  record,  where  that  can  be 
procured,  gives  much  valuable  information  as  to 
dates,  addresses,  and  names  of  relatives  and  wit- 
nesses. A  transcript  of  the  record  will  usually 
be  furnished  by  the  registrar  of  vital  statistics 

98 


FURTHER  ITEMS  IN  THE  INVESTIGATION 

in  the  city  where  the  marriage  took  place  (if  in 
the  United  States)  for  a  nominal  fee  of  fifty 
cents. 

It  is  much  more  difficult  to  verify  marriages 
which  took  place  in  other  countries,  and  social 
workers  are  often  appalled  by  the  prevalence  of 
the  so-called  "American  marriage"  among  im- 
migrant deserters,  who  trust  to  our  happy-go- 
lucky  methods  for  protection  against  a  prosecu- 
tion for  bigamy. 

Such  was  the  case  of  Orfeo  Pelligrini,  who  came  to  this 
country  and  took  a  new  wife  when  his  children  in  Italy 
were  nearly  grown.  His  Italian  family  came  to  America 
through  their  own  efforts  a  few  years  later,  and  Orfeo 
found  that  he  had  underestimated  the  character  of  his 
eldest  son,  who  traced  his  father,  had  him  arrested  and 
taken  to  the  city  where  his  original  family  was  living. 
Orfeo,  now  forcibly  reunited  to  the  wife  of  his  bosom, 
walks  softly  under  the  threat  of  bigamy  proceedings, 
while  the  "American"  wife  refuses  to  take  any  action  on 
the  ground  that  "he  didn't  go  away  from  me  of  his  own 
wish,  and  why  should  I  put  him  behind  the  bars?" 

Of  an  altogether  more  simple  mental  make-up  was  the 
Slovak  laborer  who  brought  his  pregnant  "American 
wife"  and  two  children  to  the  district  office  of  a  charity 
organization  society,  saying  that  the  relatives  in  Europe 

99 


BROKEN  HOMES 

of  Anna,  his  first  wife,  had  sent  Anna  to  this  country,  and 
she  was  on  the  point  of  arriving.  He  added  that,  as 
manifestly  it  was  not  possible  to  support  two  famiUes  on 
his  wages,  he  would  Hke  to  provide  for  his  second  wife 
through  "the  Charity." 

A  district  secretary  who  has  worked  for  many 
years  with  Italians  is  authority  for  the  state- 
ment that  marriages  in  Italy  are  always  regis- 
tered at  the  man's  legal  residence,  no  matter 
where  the  marriage  took  place.  "Careful  Italian 
parents,  if  they  cannot  get  reliable  information 
in  other  ways,  write  to  the  'paese'  of  a  suitor  for 
information  in  regard  to  his  conjugal  condition. 
A  marriage  which  takes  place  in  America  is  cus- 
tomarily registered  with  the  consul  for  trans- 
mission to  the  home  town  in  Italy." 

In  some  countries  of  Latin  America  great  con- 
fusion may  be  caused  by  the  fact  that  a  mar- 
riage performed  in  church  is  not  legal  in  the  eyes 
of  the  state  unless  a  second  ceremony  is  gone 
through  before  the  civil  authorities.  A  Guate- 
malan woman,  deserted  in  this  country,  had  no 
recourse  in  law  because  she  had  had  only  the 
church  ceremony  in  her  country.    Her  claim  to 

lOO 


FURTHER  ITEMS  IN  THE  irW^StlGATlOlS^  * 

the  status  of  common  law  wife  was  invalidated 
by  the  man's  producing  proof  that  he  was  already 
married  at  the  time  the  religious  ceremony  was 
performed. 

Having  established  the  fact  that  a  legal  mar- 
riage has  taken  place,  the  case  worker  must  keep 
in  mind  the  possibility  that  it  may  have  been 
later  dissolved.  It  is  not  at  all  uncommon  to 
find  that  a  deserter  who  has  gone  off  with  an- 
other woman  has  started  proceedings  to  get  a 
divorce  by  "publication."  This  can  happen 
when  the  two  have  gone  to  a  state  where  such 
unfair  divorce  procedure  is  permitted.  Publica- 
tion in  these  cases  takes  place  in  local  news- 
papers which  there  is  little  or  no  chance  of  the 
wife  seeing;  and  she  may  later  find  herself  a 
divorced  woman  with  no  legal  claim  for  support 
for  herself  or  children,  and  suffering  under 
charges  of  misconduct  without  having  had  a 
chance  of  being  heard.  The  National  Desertion 
Bureau  found  this  proceeding  so  common  an 
abuse  that  it  established  a  clearing  bureau  in 
its  central  office,  and  its  local  representatives  in 
different  parts  of  the  country  notify  this  bureau 

lOI 


RROKEN  HOMES 

as  soon  as  any  action  for  divorce  is  started  by  a 
man  with  a  Jewish  name  against  a  wife  whose 
"address  is  unknown."* 

What  are  some  of  the  other  points  at  which 
the  investigation  of  cases  of  desertion  may  differ 
from  the  technique  generally  accepted?  The 
superintendent  of  a  desertion  bureau,  in  answer 
to  this  question,  said  that  he  emphasized  "neigh- 
borhood references"  more  than  in  the  ordinary 
case.  Social  workers  have  become  very  wary, 
of  course,  of  much  inquiry  among  present  neigh- 
bors; but  where  the  protection  of  the  woman  or 
the  children  is  involved  it  is  often  necessary  to 
procure  the  testimony  of  people  who  live  nearby 
or  in  the  same  house.  A  deserted  family  is 
usually  so  much  a  center  of  neighborhood  inter- 
est or  sympathy,  or  both,  that  it  is  easier  than 
in  some  other  types  of  cases  to  secure  informa- 
tion from  neighbors,  tradesmen,  and  so  on,  with- 
out augmenting  neighborhood  gossip. 

*  It  is  the  policy  of  the  Bureau,  when  such  a  case  is  dis- 
covered, to  help  the  wife  get  competent  legal  advice  in  the 
city  where  action  is  being  brought,  and  either  to  contest 
the  case  or  start  a  counter  suit.  Where  necessary  the 
woman  is  sent  on  to  appear  in  person. 

102 


FURTHER  ITEMS  IN  THE  INVESTIGATION 

Probably  the  most  difficult  part  of  the  neces- 
sary information  to  be  secured  in  desertion  cases 
is  an  adequate  picture  of  the  sex  relationship 
between  man  and  wife.  The  part  which  sex 
plays  in  the  causation  of  desertion  has  been 
touched  upon  in  Chapter  II.*  In  getting  the 
information  from  the  people  concerned,  the  case 
worker  needs  no  elaborate  equipment  •as  a 
psycho-analyst;  but  she  should  know  enough 
about  sex  psychology  to  recognize  a  pathological 
problem  when  she  meets  it,  and  to  be  able  to 
call  on  the  psycho-analyst  or  psychiatrist  for 
specialized  service.  ^A^ 

The  securing  of  an  adequate  picture  ^B^ihe 
sex  life  of  the  couple  may  have  to  be  delegated, 
however,  to  some  volunteer  whose  own  sex,  pro-, 
fession,  or  marital  experience  makes  him  or  her 
a  suitable  person  to  secure  it. 

"The  majority  of  social  case  workers  are  unmarried 
women  under  forty,  and  in  this  particular  respect  they 
frequently  find  themselves  handicapped  by  the  natural 
reluctance  of  the  deserter  to  discuss  his  conceptions  of  the 
marital  relation  in  such  a  way  as  to  be  enlightening  to 
them,  as  well  as  by  the  chivalrous  attitude  which  the 

*  See  p.  37  sq. 

103 


BROKEN  HOMES 

woman  of  the  tenements  often  adopts  toward  her  un- 
married visitor.  The  decisive  statement,  'You  have 
never  been  married,  so  you  can't  understand,'  often 
proves  at  least  a  temporary  barrier  in  dealing  with 
deserted  wives,  just  as  the  similar  statement,  'You  have 
never  been  a  mother  so  you  cannot  know  the  feelings  of 
one,'  is  used  to  block  her  efforts  in  another  direction.  If 
it  is  found  impossible  to  carry  on  the  necessary  discussions 
rationally  and  without  too  serious  embarrassment,  it  is 
often  ^ssible  to  call  upon  the  socially-minded  physician 
or  clergyman  for  help  along  this  Une."* 

To  sum  up,  the  interviews  with  the  family 
and  the  supplementary  visits  and  letters  of  in- 
yquijinhould  furnish  the  social  worker  if  possible 

1.  A  clear  picture  of  the  home  in  which  the 
two  adult  members  of  the  family  grew  up,  and 
the  factors  in  their  early  training  which  contrib- 
uted to  their  failure  as  husband  or  wife;  or 
which  can  be  utilized  as  assets  in  the  future 
plan. 

2.  A  history  of  how  the  couple  met;  the 
events  of  their  courtship  and  marriage,  including 

*  J.  C.  Colcord  in  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 
of  Political  and  Social  Science,  May,  191 8,  p.  97. 

104 


FURTHER  ITEMS  IN  THE  INVESTIGATION 

sex  relations  prior  to  marriage  with  spouse  or 
others;  also  previous  marriages.  Records  of 
marriage,  death  of  previous  spouse,  etc.,  are 
very  important  and  should  be  secured  if  in 
existence. 

3.  A  picture  of  the  family  and  its  individual 
members  in  their  other  social  relationships — with 
employers,  medical  agencies,  teachers,  their 
church,  their  friends,  their  relatives.  Knowledge 
of  their  habits,  tastes,  and  characteristics,  with 
special  attention  to  period  of  first  desertion. 
Analysis  of  factors  leading  to  the  desertion. 

4.  History  of  first  reconciliation  (unless  the 
present  is  the  first  break) .  History  of  subsequent 
desertions.    Court  record,  if  any. 

A  prerequisite  to  some  of  the  above  informa- 
tion is  an  interview  or  interviews  with  the  man. 
Where  this  cannot  be  had  as  part  of  the  first 
investigation,  the  investigation  should  leave  the 
worker  in  possession  of  some  good  clues,  at  least, 
to  the  man's  whereabouts. 


105 


VI 

THE  DETAILS  OF  TREATMENT 

A  S  IN  all  other  problems  faced  by  the  case 
-*^'  worker,  it  is  impossible  to  lay  down  general 
rules  for  the  treatment  of  desertion.  There  may 
be  general  considerations,  however,  which  it  is 
well  to  keep  in  mind,  some  of  which  have  been 
advanced  in  the  last  chapter.* 

On  questions  of  investigation  there  is  closer 
agreement  among  social  workers  than  on  ques- 
tions of  treatment.  Personal  factors  here  play 
a  much  larger  part,  and  it  may  very  well  be 
that  two  case  workers  who  differ  in  personality 
but  are  of  equal  ability,  will  choose  very  different 
plans  of  treatment  in  a  given  case  and  yet  each 
bring  it  to  a  successful  issue.     It  is  with  a  good 

*  The  Questionnaire  on  the  Deserted  Family  (see  p.  395 
sq.  of  Richmond's  Social  Diagnosis)  has  already  been  men- 
tioned as  suggesting  lines  of  investigation.  It  will  also  be 
found  useful  at  the  stage  of  summing  up  knowledge  gained 
and  seeing  in  what  direction  it  points. 

106 


THE  DETAILS  OF  TREATMENT 

deal  of  hesitancy,  therefore,  that  a  case  worker 
ventures  upon  the  discussion  of  anything  so 
flexible  as  treatment.  In  preparation  for  this 
study  many  consultations  were  had  with  prac- 
tising social  case  workers  in  the  fields  of  family 
work,  probation,  medical-social  service,  and  child 
welfare.  Differences  of  opinion  were  found  and 
this  chapter  will  attempt  to  express  the  compo- 
site opinion  on  how  to  treat  the  deserter  and  his 
family  in  the  different  situations  which  confront 
them. 

1.  Man's  Whereabouts  Unknown  but  Desertion  of 
Recent  Date.— It  is  better  in  this  case  to  make  no 
very  definite  plans  for  the  family.  Emergent 
plans,  both  as  to  relief  and  medical  or  other 
care  should,  of  course,  be  prompt  and  adequate. 
Now  is  the  time,  if  it  can  be  done,  to  win  the 
confidence  and  co-operation  of  the  wife.  We 
should,  however,  make  no  promises  for  the  sake 
of  "buying"  co-operation,  and  give  no  premature 
advice  either  as  to  prosecution  or  reconciliation. 
Everything  possible  should  be  done  to  strengthen 
such  ties  with  church,  relatives,  and  friends  as 

107 


BROKEN  HOMES 

may  be  helpful,  but  the  social  worker  should  be 
slow  to  encourage  the  family  to  form  new  ties 
with  other  social  agencies  at  this  time.  She 
should  avoid  the  possibility  of  judging  the 
woman  harshly  in  a  period  of  stress,  but  be 
watchful  for  signs  of  deterioration  and  resource- 
ful to  combat  them.  This  is  the  stage,  of  course, 
when  all  energies  should  be  bent  toward  finding 
the  man. 

In  this  as  in  the  other  situations  about  to  be 
discussed,  the  question  of  whether  or  not  the 
home  should  be  broken  up  and  the  children 
committed  should  be  decided  on  other  grounds 
than  on  the  desertion  alone.  Under  many  cir- 
cumstances, it  is  the  best  thing  to  do.  The 
woman,  worn  out  with  anxiety  or  abuse,  may  be 
unequal  to  their  physical  care  for  the  present; 
or  they  may  be  running  wild  and  in  danger  of 
becoming  delinquent.  The  mother  may  be 
morally  an  unfit  guardian,  and  the  desertion 
may  furnish  the  long-sought  opportunity  to 
interfere  for  the  children's  protection.  Com- 
mitment may  have  to  be  planned,  and  the 
mother's  consent  won,  to  save  the  children  from 

io8 


THE  DETAILS  OF  TREATMENT 

the  return  of  a  brutal  father,  against  whom  she 
cannot  protect  them.  Or  she  may  desire  a 
temporary  commitment  in  order  to  give  her 
husband  a  severe  lesson.  The  main  considera- 
tion, however,  ought  to  be  what  is  going,  in  j  ^y 
the  long  run,  to  be  best  for  the  children  con- 
cerned. 

2.  Man's  Whereabouts  Unknown,  Desertion  of 
Long  Standing. — A  very  different  problem  from 
the  preceding  may  be  presented  in  the  family 
of  a  man  who  disappeared  some  time  ago.  Where 
the  desertion  is  bona  fide  and  has  persisted  over 
a  period  of  years,  it  is  often  possible  to  treat 
the  family  as  if  the  man  were  dead,  and,  if  other 
circumstances  make  this  advisable,  to  plan  com-/ 
prehensively  for  the  future.  There  is  always  the 
chance,  however,  that,  until  the  man's  death  is 
established,  he  may  tiirn  up  unexpectedly.  If 
living,  he  usually  manages  to  hear  now  and 
again  about  his  family  and  is  often  able  to  find 
them  at  will.  A  man  who  had  neither  seen  nor 
communicated  with  his  family  during  the  ten 
years  they  had  been  maintained  by  a  private 

109 


BROKEN  HOMES 

family  agency,  nevertheless  sent  promptly  for 
his  wife  and  eldest  son  by  a  messenger  who 
knew  exactly  where  to  find  them  (although  they 
had  moved  in  the  interval  several  times),  when 
he  lay  dying  of  alcoholic  excess  in  the  city 
hospital. 

The  laws  of  many  states  contain  a  provision 
that  the  marriage  of  a  person  who  has  completely 
disappeared  and  not  been  heard  from  in  a  period 
of  years  can  be  set  aside  by  the  proper  authori- 
\ties.  This  makes  legal  the  remarriage  of  the 
spouse.  In  nearly  all  of  the  states  divorce  can 
be  obtained  on  the  ground  of  long  continued 
desertion.*  The  wisdom  of  advising  such  a  di- 
vorce, however,  should  receive  careful  individual 
consideration,  particularly  in  relation  to  the  re- 
ligious faith  of  the  client  and  the  attitude  of 
that  faith  toward  divorce. 

3.  Man's  Whereabouts  Known;  Man  Unwilling  to 
Return  or  Support. — Many  types  of  deserting  men 
are  included  under  this  catch-all  heading — the 

*  The  state  of  New  York  is  an  exception,  as  it  grants 
only  limited  divorce  for  desertion. 

IIO 


THE  DETAILS  OF  TREATMENT 

so-called  "justifiable  deserter;"  the  man  who 
has  fled  to  escape  his  creditors  or  is  a  fugitive 
from  justice;  the  man  who  has  elected  to  try 
life  with  another  mate ;  the  wandering  hobo  who 
means  to  come  back  some  sweet  day  but  not 
now ;  the  cowardly  pregnancy  deserter ;  the  low- 
grade  irresponsible — a  motley  crew.  They  are 
grouped  together  here  for  convenience,  since 
they  constitute  those  with  whom  coercive  meas- 
ures have  most  often  to  be  used. 

A  good  example  of  the  "justifiable  deserter"  is  found 
in  the  story  of  Williams.*  This  man,  when  home  condi- 
tions became  intolerable,  tried  to  secure  his  children's 
safety  through  the  courts  but  did  not  obtain  a  hearing. 
He  left  home  feeling  that  he  was  fully  justified.  The 
lame  point  in  his  self-defense  was  his  failure  to  support 
his  children,  and  it  took  a  court  order  to  rectify  this  in 
part. 

Joseph  Mellor  is  in  a  more  logical  situation  in  his 
refusal  to  provide  for  his  wife,  since  he  is  paying  the 
board  of  his  child  in  a  good  institution.  He  makes  no 
charge  against  her  character,  but  insists  that  her  quarrel- 
some and  dictatorial  disposition  makes  her  impossible 
to  live  with.     She  had  haled  him  so  many  times  into 

*  See  p.  57. 
8  III 


BROKEN  HOMES 

court  and  lost  him  so  many  positions  that  Mellor,  who 
earns  a  good  salary,  will  deal  with  her  only  through  his 
lawyer,  who  keeps  his  client's  whereabouts  secret  and 
will  not  trust  the  social  worker  interested  even  to  the 
extent  of  arranging  an  interview. 

It  is  generally  impossible  in  cases  of  such 
deep-seated  antagonism  to  make  any  plans  look- 
ing toward  reconciliation.  The  "justifiable  de- 
serter" can  usually  be  reasoned  with,  and  once 
he  understands  and  admits  his  responsibilities, 
can  often  be  made  to  live  up  to  them  without 
judicial  process. 

A  ship  steward  deserted  his  wife,  who  was  both  alco- 
holic and  paretic,  taking  with  him  his  only  child  whom 
he  placed  with  his  relatives.  The  woman  was  devoted 
to  the  boy  and  broken  in  spirit  because  she  was  not  al- 
lowed to  see  him.  The  steward  claimed,  probably  cor- 
rectly, that  he  was  not  responsible  for  the  woman's 
syphilitic  condition.  The  following  extract  from  the 
record  of  the  first  interview  with  the  man  is  quoted  to 
show  the  lines  of  argument  which  were  effective  with 
him: 

"Man  at  District  Office — ^Visitor  started  in  imme- 
diately with  the  subject  in  hand,  thinking  he  was  the 
sort  that  would  respond  to  absolutely  direct  dealing. 
Explained  to  him  that  we  had  been  given  to  under- 
stand his  wife  was  ill,  not  only  from  alcoholism  but  also 

112 


THE  DETAILS  OF  TREATMENT 

from  other  complications;  that  it  was  suspected  there 
might  be  some  difficulty  with  her  blood  and  that  we  had 
been  advised  that  her  mental  condition  was  not  now  as 
strong  as  it  had  been  previously.  Explained  to  him  that 
he  was  absolutely  responsible  for  his  wife,  for  her  sup- 
port, and  for  her  care  and  protection,  and  that  no  matter 
how  far  he  traveled,  his  responsibility  remained  the  same; 
that  he  had  assumed  this  when  he  married  her.  Said 
that  he  felt  no  responsibility  for  her  whatsoever,  that 
he  had  done  all  he  ever  would  do  for  her  and  intended 
to  devote  his  efforts  toward  his  child.  Visitor  explained 
to  him  that  woman's  intemperance  might  perfectly  well 
be  a  disease  over  which  it  would  be  very  dijSicult  for 
her  to  have  control;  that,  moreover,  if  she  were  suffer- 
ing also  from  a  blood  condition,  this  should  have  treat- 
ment. Explained  that  he  would  more  nearly  meet  his 
responsibilities  were  he  to  have  her  examined  and  send 
her  where  she  could  procure  the  treatment  required,  even 
if  it  meant  commitment  to  an  institution.  At  this 
point  man  seemed  more  interested,  particularly  as  visitor 
told  him  that  Arthur  would  grow  up  and  would  want 
to  know  where  his  mother  was  and  what  had  become  of 
her;  and  if  man  had  left  her  sick  and  alone,  at  the 
mercy  of  strangers,  he  would  not  be  able  to  give  an 
adequate  accounting  to  his  son.  Man's  reaction  was  not 
what  visitor  had  expected — he  would  be  glad  to  put  her 
away  where  she  could  not  trouble  him  any  more  but  he 
did  not  intend  to  expend  any  more  money.  Said  he  was 
under  too  heavy  expenses  with  Arthur.  Claimed  he 
was  making  $70  a  month,  and  visitor  forced  him  to  add 

113 


v/ 


BROKEN  HOMES 

that  he  got  in  addition  his  board  and  lodging  on  the 
ship,  so  that  he  was  under  no  expense  except  when  on 
shore  leave.  Visitor  repeated  that  as  a  husband  he  was 
required  to  pay  for  woman's  care,  that  that  was  the 
right  thing  to  do;  that  one  way  he  would  be  a  husband 
deserting  his  wife,  liable  to  arrest  for  non-support  and 
desertion,  and  the  other  way  a  husband  with  a  sick  wife 
for  whom  he  was  willing  to  provide  the  medical  atten- 
tion and  care  that  every  sick  person  has  a  right  to  have. 
He  said  if  it  was  a  question  of  a  few  dollars  a  week,  he 
supposed  he  would  be  wilUng  to  do  it,  and  visitor  felt 
he  really  was  wiUing  to  do  the  right  thing  if  he  only 
could  be  assured  that  woman  would  not  interfere  with 
Arthur.  Said  he  would  never  let  woman  see  the  child, 
but  finally  admitted,  if  she  were  not  drunk  and  was  in 
the  hospital  and  it  would  do  any  good,  he  supposed  she 
could." 

With  persistent  or  recalcitrant  deserters  as  a 
group,  court  action  has  very  often  to  be  in- 
voked. Procedure  in  this  direction  differs  so 
much  in  different  communities  that  only  gen- 
eral observations  can  be  offered  here.  If  the 
man  has  left  his  home  but  not  the  town  and  is 
still  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  local  court,  the 
magistrate  will  usually  issue  a  summons  (which 
in  many  cities  the  wife  is  expected  to  serve) 
calling  on  the  man  to  appear  at  court  on  the 

114 


THE  DETAILS  OF  TREATMENT 

date  set  for  the  hearing.  If  he  fails  to  appear  a 
warrant  for  his  arrest  is  issued.  If  he  has  left 
the  city  but  not  the  state,  local  courts  may  issue 
warrants,  which  can  be  mailed  to  the  city  to 
which  the  man  has  gone  and  served  by  the 
police  there;  or  an  officer  may  be  sent  from  the 
home  town  with  a  warrant  to  arrest  the  man 
and  bring  him  back. 

Prior  to  his  arraignment,  the  best  court  prac- 
tice calls  for  an  investigation  by  the  probation 
officer,  so  that  the  judge  may  have  substantiated 
facts  before  him  when  the  case  comes  up. 
Whether  this  is  done  or  not  here  is  the  time 
and  place  for  the  social  worker  who  already 
knows  the  family  to  get  his  knowledge  in  usable 
fashion  before  the  court.  How  best  to  do  this 
varies  greatly  in  different  communities.  Some- 
times the  social  worker  is  permitted  to  talk 
the  matter  over  with  the  judge  personally,  some- 
times with  the  probation  officer,  clerk  or  other 
court  official.  Sometimes  a  written  report  is 
required,  to  be  attached  to  the  probation  of- 
ficer's report.  Occasionally  the  social  worker 
gets  no  chance  to  be  heard  unless  he  is  present 

115 


BROKEN  HOMES 

to  testify  in  open  court.  In  the  last  two  con- 
tingencies, care  must  be  taken  to  safeguard  in- 
formation given  in  confidence,  even  by  the  de- 
serter. Letters  marked  "confidential"  should 
not  ordinarily  be  submitted  in  court  except  by 
consent  of  the  writer,  as  some  judges  hold  that 
material  so  submitted  becomes  a  matter  of 
public  record. 

The  approach  to  the  court,  therefore,  is  gov- 
erned by  local  conditions.  A  very  important 
part  of  co-operation  in  any  community  is  to 
see  that  this  channel  is  kept  free  from  obstruc- 
tion. In  general,  the  probation  officer  should 
be  the  best  friend  of  the  other  social  workers, 
since  he  knows  their  language.  Indeed,  many 
social  workers  themselves  combine  the  office  of 
probation  officer  with  their  other  duties. 

After  the  institution  of  court  proceedings  the 
outside  social  worker  has  usually  little  chance  to 
affect  the  disposition  of  the  case.  This  is  made 
by  the  judge  on  the  basis  of  the  testimony  he 
elicits  in  court,  and  on  that  of  any  preliminary 
investigation  he  may  have  caused  to  be  made. 
Disposition  may  be: 

Ii6 


THE  DETAILS  OF  TREATMENT 

1.  In  rare  instances,  to  dismiss  the  complaint  alto- 
gether. 

2.  To  remand  for  a  later  hearing. 

3.  To  induce  the  woman  to  drop  her  complaint  and 
give  the  man  another  chance.* 

4.  To  place  the  man  under  court  order  to  stay  away 
from  home  and  pay  his  wife  a  stated  amount  weekly. 
Custom  differs  in  different  places  as  to  whether  payment 
shall  be  direct  to  the  wife,  through  the  probation  officer 
or  clerk  of  court,  or  through  public  or  private  charities. 

5.  To  order  the  man  to  return  home  and  contribute  a 
stated  amount. 

6.  To  place  on  probation  (together  with  either  4  or  5). 

7.  Commitment — usually  to  jail  or  workhouse,  and 
for  a  period  of  not  over  six  months.  May  be  longer  for 
violation  of  probation  or  for  aggravated  offense. 

When  the  deserting  man  has  gone  without 
the  borders  of  the  state,  there  is  the  added 
problem  of  securing  his  extradition,  which  is 
often  a  difficult  one.  Wife  desertion  is  in  most 
states  only  a  misdemeanor  (in  New  York  it  is 
even  less  serious  and  constitutes  in  the  eye  of 
the  law  only  disorderly  conduct).  Since  extra- 
dition between  states  has  to  be  acted  upon  by 
the  governors  of  the  states,  it  is  unusual  (though 

*  See  p.  132  sq.  concerning  court  reconciliations. 

117 


BROKEN  HOMES 

not  impossible*)  to  secure  extradition  for  a  mis- 
demeanor. The  reluctance  of  the  authorities  is 
understandable,  however,  when  it  is  realized 
that  to  extradite  for  wife  desertion  would  be  to 
create  a  precedent  for  extradition  for  any  sort 
of  misdemeanor.  There  is  in  most  states  a  law 
which  makes  the  abandonment  of  a  minor  child 
or  children  a  felony,  punishable  by  a  long  term 
in  state  prison,  and  it  is  this  law  which  is  gen- 
erally invoked  when  the  man  has  been  traced 
to  another  state.  Complaint  then  has  to  be 
made  to  the  district  (or  county)  attorney,  the 
matter  taken  before  the  grand  jury  and  an  indict- 
ment secured  before  extradition  papers  can  be 
granted.  The  man,  if  captured,  must  usually 
be  tried  in  a  higher  court  than  the  domestic 
relations  court;  if  convicted  he  is  likely  to  be 
more  severely  punished.  Extradition  means 
expense  to  the  state;  it  is  usually  difficult, 
moreover,   to  get  an  active  interest  taken  in 


♦  See  Baldwin,  Wm.  H.:  "The  Most  Effective  Methods 
of  Dealing  with  Cases  of  Desertion  and  Non-support," 
Journal  American  Institute  of  Criminal  Law  and  Criminol- 
ogy, November,  19 17. 

118 


THE  DETAILS  OF  TREATMENT 

extraditing  a  family  deserter  who,  to  the  legal 
eye,  has  committed  an  offense  neither  against 
the  person  nor  against  property,  and  cannot 
therefore  be  a  serious  offender! 

If  extradition  for  family  desertion  is  difficult 
between  states,  with  other  countries  it  is  im- 
possible, as  no  treaties  exist  even  with  con- 
tiguous countries  like  Canada  and  Mexico.*  By 
special  arrangement  with  the  Canadian  authori- 
ties, states  which  touch  the  Canadian  border  can 
sometimes  obtain  the  person  of  a  deserter  with- 
out actual  extradition.  Information  is  sub- 
mitted to  the  police  of  the  Canadian  town  where 
the  man  is  known  to  be,  who  thereupon  arrest 
him  as  an  "undesirable  citizen"  and  arrange  for 
his  deportation.  The  neighboring  state  is  noti- 
fied, and  an  officer  with  a  warrant  meets  the 
Canadian  officer  and  the  prisoner  at  the  boun- 
dary, arresting  the  latter  as  soon  as  he  sets  foot 
across  the  state  line. 

The  testimony  of  social  workers  is,  in  the  main, 
in  favor  of  probation  as  against  long  prison  sen-    ' 
tence  for  men  of  this  type.     "We  have  found  a 

*  See  p.  169  sq. 
119 


/ 


BROKEN  HOMES 

shortened  penitentiary  sentence,  with  release  on 
probation,  very  successful  in  a  number  of  in- 
stances." "Sometimes  the  probation  has  been 
more  effective  by  its  being  a  sort  of  double  pro- 
bation; that  is,  having  the  case  pending  in 
juvenile  court  as  well  as  municipal  or  district 
court.  The  fear  of  having  his  children  per- 
/manently  taken  from  him  if  he  again  fails  to 
support  them  has,  in  one  or  two  instances,  had 
much  more  effect  with  the  deserter  than  the 
threat  of  a  prison  sentence."  "Probation  works 
very  well  and  occasionally  a  prison  sentence; 
but  probation  is  better."  These  statements 
come  from  cities  where  probation  work  is  well 
organized.  From  another  city  where  the  pro- 
bation officers  are  notoriously  overworked,  comes 
a  pessimistic  note:  "The  theory  of  probation  is 
fine,  but  the  practice  is  poor  because  the  officers 
have  entirely  too  much  to  do." 

Probation  is  simply  case  work  with  the  added 
"punch"  of  the  law  behind  it;  so  that  when  it 
is  at  all  well  done  it  should  have  the  more  last- 
ing results.  Probation  officers  and  other  social 
workers  agree,  however,  that  for  certain  deserters 

120 


THE  DETAILS  OF  TREATMENT 

of  the  complacent  type,  an  unexpected  prison 
sentence  is  sometimes  a  very  salutary  dash  of 
cold  water. 

After  having  tried  one  or  two  short  absences,  osten- 
sibly to  look  for  work  and  finding  that  nothing  serious 
happened  to  him,  Andreas  Gorokhoff  walked  out  one 
day  and  did  not  come  back  for  five  years.  During  that 
time  his  wife's  relatives  and  the  community's  family 
agency  took  care  of  his  family  while  he  led  the  hfe  of  a 
care-free  vagabond.  He  was  ready  upon  his  return  to 
settle  down  again  for  a  time;  but  the  family  agency  and 
the  probation  department  thought  differently,  and  suc- 
ceeded in  having  him  sent  to  state  prison  for  an  indeter- 
minate sentence  of  not  more  than  two  years.  He  was 
released  on  parole  for  good  conduct,  returned  home, 
went  to  work,  and,  during  the  four  years  which  have 
since  elapsed,  all  has  gone  well. 

Good  results  may,  and  probably  more  often 
do,  follow  shorter  prison  sentences. 

A  man  on  probation  for  intemperance,  broke  it  and 
deserted.  On  account  of  the  children's  keen  feeling 
about  the  consequent  disgrace,  the  wife  made  no  move 
until  urged  thereto  by  the  social  worker  interested.  Her 
husband  was  then  arrested  in  a  nearby  city  and  brought 
back,  much  surprised  at  the  firm  stand  his  wife  had 
taken.  He  was  sentenced  to  four  months,  served  two, 
and  was  released  on  parole.    Since  his  return  he  has  not 

121 


BROKEN  HOMES 

been  drinking  and  has  been  contributing  satisfactorily 
toward  the  support  of  his  family. 

The  first  step  taken  by  Harvey  Brand  when  released 
from  the  workhouse  after  a  short  prison  sentence,  was 
to  stop  in  at  a  furniture  store  and  order  a  green  plush 
parlor  "suit"  on  the  instalment  plan.  Harvey  had  never 
been  conspicuously  interested  in  his  home  before,  and 
the  district  secretary  and  her  committee  were  aghast  at 
this  new  evidence  of  his  irresponsibility.  The  green  plush 
was,  however,  the  outward  sign  of  an  inner  burgeoning, 
and  it  warmed  the  heart  of  Mrs.  Harvey  as  nothing  else 
could  have  done.  From  that  time,  Harvey,  with  judi- 
cious encouragement  over  a  few  hard  spots,  has  become 
a  good  family  man  and  a  regular  provider. 

The  particular  problem  involved  in  the  treat- 
ment of  the  family  during  the  trial  and  im- 
r  prisonment  of  the  deserter  is  that  of  encouraging 
the  woman  to  stick  to  her  guns.  If  she  with- 
draws her  complaint  or  secures  his  release  before 
his  time  is  up,  she  not  only  convinces  him  of  her 
lack  of  firmness  but  the  entry  in  the  court 
record  seriously  prejudices  her  case  should  she 
make  complaint  there  again.  Unless  the  social 
worker  is  convinced,  therefore,  that  the  sentence 
has  been  unduly  severe,  the  wife  should  be  en- 
couraged in  every  way  to  let  her  husband  serve 

122 


THE  DETAILS  OF  TREATMENT 

out  his  time.  If  a  policy  of  relief  has  been 
necessary,  care  should  be  taken  that  it  be 
adequate,  so  that  economic  pressure  will  not 
induce  her  to  ask  for  his  release.  If  the  home 
has  been  broken  up  and  the  children  committed, 
the  mother's  loneliness  and  desire  to  have  her 
home  back  is  likely  to  work  in  the  same  way. 
The  hope  of  making  her  husband  kinder  when 
he  returns  often  leads  a  woman  to  ask  for  his 
release.  The  pressure  of  relatives  and  friends, 
and  sometimes  of  her  church  is  likely  to  be 
exerted  in  the  same  direction  and  unknown  to 
the  social  worker.  Chaplains  of  correctional 
institutions,  interested  entirely  in  the  man  and 
with  no  knowledge  of  the  family  situation,  are 
also  likely  to  appear  in  the  case;  and  it  is  well 
to  acquaint  them,  in  the  beginning,  of  our  in- 
terest and  our  hope  that  no  step  will  be  taken 
without  a  consultation.  If  it  is  hoped  or  ex- 
pected that  the  man  will  return  to  his  home 
after  imprisonment,  he  should  be  earnestly  cul- 
tivated by  the  social  worker  while  he  is  serving 
his  time.  Visits  and  letters  will  go  far  toward 
breaking  down  his  resentment  at  the  part  the 

123 


li 


BROKEN  HOMES 

worker  is  likely  to  have  played  in  "putting  him 
behind  the  bars."  Now  is  an  excellent  time  to 
introduce  a  man  as  volunteer  visitor  to  the 
prisoner,  if  he  is  to  be  off  probation  when  re- 
leased. If  imprisonment  or  "stay-away  proba- 
tion" does  not  have  the  desired  effect  of  making 
the  deserter  willing  and  anxious  to  return  to  his 
family  and  take  care  of  them,  or  if  for  any 
reason  return  is  permanently  undesirable,  the 
advisability  of  obtaining  a  legal  separation* 
should  be  considered  at  this  point.  If,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  man  evinces  eagerness  to  return 
home  and  support  his  family,  he  comes  auto- 
matically (though  belatedly)  into  the  class  to  be 
considered  in  the  next  chapter. 

*  See  p.  127. 


J«4 


VII 

THE  DETAILS  OF  TREATMENT  (Con- 
tinued) 

nnHERE  remains  a  fourth  classification  under 
-'-  treatment,  of  cases  which  demand  even  more 
individualized  care  and  therefore  more  extended 
comment  than  those  just  considered. 

4.  Man*8  Whereabouts  Known;  Man  Willing  to 
Return. — Here  the  question  to  determine  is 
whether  it  is  going  to  be  a  desirable  thing  for 
the  man  to  re-enter  the  home  and,  if  so,  when. 
This  does  not  always  lie  within  the  power  of 
the  case  worker  to  decide;  the  couple  may  and 
often  do  resolve  their  differences  for  the  time 
being  without  reference  to  her  opinion.  But 
she  can  often  hasten,  defer,  or  even  prevent  the 
reconciliation.  Careful  consideration  must  be 
given  the  elements  involved :  What  causes  prob- 
ably operated  to  bring  about  the  rupture  in  ^ 
family  relations?    If  there  have  been  other  de- 

125 


BROKEN  HOMES 

sertions  what  does  their  history  show?  Is  the 
man's  willingness  to  return  a  sign  of  real  change 
of  heart  and  purpose,  or  is  he  merely  afraid  of 
punishment?  Are  his  habits  such  as  to  make 
him  a  fit  inmate  of  the  home?  Is  he  capable  of 
supporting  the  family?  Can  any  adjustment  of 
temperaments  be  made  which  will  lessen  incom- 
patibility? Is  the  wife  willing  to  have  him  re- 
turn? What  are  her  motives?  Has  she  enough 
firmness  of  character  to  carry  out  a  plan  to 
which  she  has  agreed?  These  are  only  a  few  of 
the  questions  to  which  the  social  worker  needs 
to  know  the  answer,  if  the  decision  is  to  be  a 
wise  one.  ' 

If  none  of  the  elements  is  present  in  tne  home 
out  of  which  family  life  can  be  reconstructed, 
if  the  man's  self-indulgence  and  cruelty  have 
been  proved  beyond  any  doubt,  or  if  affection 
is  dead  or  never  existed,  then  the  decision  may 
have  to  be  that  no  reconciliation  be  attempted. 
In  many  cases  the  question  then  is  how  best  to 
protect  the  woman  and  children  against  the 
man's  forcing  his  way  upon  them.  Court  inter- 
vention is  usually  necessary  here,  if  it  has  not 

126 


THE  DETAILS  OF  TREATMENT 

ali*eady  taken  place;  and  a  first  step  is  to  have 
the  husband  placed  under  a  court  order  to  give 
separate  support  and  to  stay  away  from  his 
home.*  The  wife  should  be  armed  with  a  war- 
rant for  his  arrest,  which  can  be  served  by  the 
policeman  on  the  beat  if  the  man  appears.  Such 
a  man  usually  considers  that  his  proprietorship 
of  the  home  and  the  family  is  not  affected  by  his 
absence  or  even  by  court  orders,  and  when  forti- 
fied by  liquor  he  is  likely  to  force  his  entrance 
into  the  home  and  perhaps  do  harm.  The  pro- 
tection of  the  warrant  is  not  absolute;  in  such 
cases  as  this  it  ought  later  to  be  reinforced  by  a 
legal  separation.  Social  workers  avail  themselves 
of  this  resource  far  less  than  they  should.  It 
controverts  the  principles  of  no  religious  sect 
and  gives  all  the  protection  of  absolute  divorce 
(including  the  payment  of  alimony)  to  the 
woman  and  children.  To  the  children  it  is  likely 
to  give  more  protection  than  divorce;  for  in  the 
event  of  the  divorced  husband's  remarriage  the 
children  of  the  second  wife  have  prior  rights  over 
those  of  the  first,  and  legal  separation  makes  this 
*See  p.  179  regarding  equity  powers  of  the  courts. 
9  127 


BROKEN  HOMES 

impossible  by  preventing  the  remarriage  of  either 
party.  Proceedings  for  a  legal  separation  can- 
not usually  be  started  if  a  man  is  on  probation, 
but  may  be  while  he  is  undergoing  imprisonment. 
It  should  be  said  that,  after  a  separation,  claims 
for  non-payment  of  alimony  cannot,  in  many 
states,  be  pressed  in  a  court  of  domestic  rela- 
tions but  must  go  to  a  civil  court.  This  is  usually 
more  expensive  and  less  satisfactory.* 

Some  social  workers  even  advance  the  heretical 
doctrine  that  support  secured  through  the  court 
from  a  cruel  and  dangerous  husband  does  not 
make  up  for  the  harm  he  may  do  and  the  anxiety 
he  causes.  If  to  force  him  into  periodical  pay- 
ments means  that  he  will  be  continually  excited 
into  seeking  out  and  "beating  up"  his  offending 
wife,  the  support  she  is  able  to  extort  from  him 
comes  high.  It  is  sometimes  necessary  to  move 
a  family  to  new  quarters  and  actually  help  them 
to  hide  from  the  pursuit  of  one  of  these  insistent 

*  Massachusetts  social  workers  succeeded  in  19 17  in 
securing  the  passage  of  a  law  which  permits  the  ordinary 
non-support  law  to  be  invoked  in  case  of  the  man's  failure 
to  pay  the  amount  ordered  after  a  legal  separation. 

128 


THE  DETAILS  OF  TREATMENT 

gentry.  Even  if  we  have  some  doubt  that  the 
wife's  protestations  of  fear  or  aversion  are  gen- 
uine, we  should  hardly  take  the  risk  of  revealing 
her  address  if  she  wishes  it  kept  secret.  This 
precaution  applies  not  only  to  the  man  but  to 
anyone  whom  we  suspect  of  being  interested  on 
his  behalf.  A  district  secretary  continued  to 
refuse  the  address  of  his  family  to  a  dangerous 
epileptic  deserter  who  threatened  the  secretary's 
life  and,  in  the  opinion  of  physicians  who  exam- 
ined him,  was  likely  to  carry  out  his  threat. 

The  committee  on  difficult  cases  in  a  family  social 
agency  voted  to  refuse  to  accept  voluntary  payments 
from  a  thoroughly  worthless  deserter  and  transmit  them 
to  his  wife  whose  address  he  was  seeking  to  learn,  on  the 
theory  that  it  was  better  for  her  and  her  children  to  be 
entirely  quit  of  him,  and  that  nothing  would  make  him 
realize  the  finality  of  the  decision  more  than  to  refuse 
his  money.  The  agency,  it  was  felt,  would  be  in  better 
position  to  protect  the  wife  and  children  if  it  refused  to 
act  as  post  office  for  the  man. 

The  same  consideration  might  apply  in  ques- 
tions of  extradition.  When  the  whereabouts  of 
a  deserter  of  this  type  has  been  discovered  in 
another  city  a  safe  distance  away,  it  may  be 

129 


BROKEN  HOMES 

wiser  to  sacrifice  the  money  he  might  be  forced 
to  contribute  than  to  have  him  brought  within 
arm's  length  of  his  wife  and  family. 
.  A  prime  difficulty  in  dealing  with  the  undesir- 
able husband  who  is  willing  to  come  home  is 
often  the  attitude  of  the  wife.  Some  of  the 
causes  at  work  when  a  woman  takes  her  hus- 
band back  have  been  discussed  earlier.*  Unfor- 
tunately, hopelessly  bad  husbands  profit  by  them 
as  well  as  hopeful  ones.  The  policy  of  niggardly 
relief  to  a  deserted  wife  has  undoubtedly  been 
responsible  for  many  of  these  unfortunate  at- 
tempts to  patch  up  a  life  together.  "She  was 
worn  down  by  her  efforts  to  keep  the  household 
going,  and,  when  the  faint  chance  of  her  hus- 
band's supporting  her  appeared,  she  took  it"  is 
the  explanation  given  by  a  case  worker  of  one 
unpromising  reconciliation,  and  she  goes  on  to 
say  of  this  and  another  similar  story:  "With 
both  of  these  it  seems  that  enough  money  put 
into  the  household  to  enable  these  mothers  to 
be  with  their  children  more  and  to  keep  up  a 
reasonable  standard  of  health   for   themselves 

*  See  p.  13  sq. 
130 


THE  DETAILS  OF  TREATMENT 

might  have  resulted  in  their  refusing  to  take 
back  their  husbands.  .  .  .  Our  records  seem 
to  show  that  inadequate  rehef ,  making  life  fairly- 
hard  for  the  deserted  mother,  does  not  tend  to 
keep  the  man  from  returning  or  others  from 
deserting." 

The  story  of  Mrs.  Francis  shows  the  effect  of  adequate 
relief  in  strengthening  her  decision  not  to  take  her  hus- 
band back.  He  had  been  a  chronic  deserter  for  years, 
had  drank  heavily,  been  foul-mouthed  and  abusive,  while 
failing  to  support  the  family  when  at  home,  so  that  Mrs. 
Francis  had  only  a  little  harder  time  when  he  was  away. 
His  last  desertion  took  place  when  she  was  near  confine- 
ment. Owing  to  her  condition,  the  church  and  a  family 
agency  co-operated  in  an  unusually  generous  relief  policy. 
This  was  in  a  state  which  gave  mother's  aid  to  deserted 
wives.  After  about  a  year  this  was  secured  for  her,  and 
the  health  of  woman  and  children  was  built  up  and  the 
home  improved.  Then  Mr.  Francis  sent  ambassadors  in 
the  form  of  relatives,  with  whom  Mrs.  Francis  refused  to 
treat.  He  later  appeared  himself,  but  she  would  not 
consider  taking  him  back.  He  escaped  before  he  could 
be  brought  into  court.  As  he  has  now  been  gone  over 
two  years,  it  seems  that  her  stand  is  a  genuine  one. 

On  the  other  hand,  when  the  man  has  been 
found  and  interviewed,  he  may  show  signs  of 

131 


BROKEN  HOMES 

repentance,  and  the  earlier  history,  together 
)^  with  the  opinion  which  the  social  worker  has 
been  able  to  form  about  the  character  of  man 
and  woman  may  make  it  seem  that  a  reconcilia- 
tion should  be  encouraged.  A  further  question 
then  arises:  Shall  the  man  return  to  his  home 
at  once  or  first  undergo  a  probationary  period? 
The  quick  reconciliation  has  been  a  feature 
of  the  work  in  domestic  relations  courts  from 
the  beginning  of  the  movement.  In  connection 
with  some  courts  there  are  special  officers  whose 
duty  it  is  to  prevail  upon  couples  who  come  to 
the  court  to  patch  up  their  differences  and  give 
each  other  another  trial.  This  would  be  an 
admirable  procedure  if  the  couples  to  receive 
such  treatment  were  selected  by  a  process  of 
careful  investigation,  and  if  probationary  super- 
vision were  continued  long  enough  to  ascertain 
whether  permanent  results  could  be  secured.  As 
it  actually  works  out  it  is  a  little  like  expecting 
a  wound  to  heal  "by  first  intention"  when  it 
has  not  been  cleaned  out  thoroughly,  and  when 
no  attention  is  being  paid  to  subsequent  dress- 
ings. 

132 


THE  DETAILS  OF  TREATMENT 

"The  wholesale  attempt  to  patch  the  tattered  fabric 
of  family  life  in  a  series  of  hurried  interviews  held  in  the 
court  room,  and  without  any  information  about  the  prob- 
lem except  what  can  be  gained  from  the  two  people  con- 
cerned, can  hardly  be  of  permanent  value  in  most  cases. 
It  is  natural  that  case  workers,  keenly  aware  as  they  are 
of  the  slow  and  difficult  processes  involved  in  character- 
rebuilding,  look  askance  at  the  court-made  reconcilia- 
tions. With  the  best  will  in  the  world,  the  people  who 
attempt  this  deUcate  service  very  often  have  neither  the 
time  nor  the  facts  about  the  particular  case  in  question 
to  give  the  skilful  and  devoted  personal  service  necessary 
to  reconstruction.  As  a  result  many  weak-willed  wrong- 
doers are  encouraged  to  take  a  pledge  of  good  conduct 
which  they  will  not,  or  cannot,  keep;  and  other  indi- 
viduals who  feel  themselves  deeply  wronged  go  away 
with  an  additional  sense  of  those  wrongs  having  been 
underestimated  and  of  having  received  no  redress.  The 
results  are  written  in  discouragement  and  in  repeated 
failures  to  Uve  in  harmony,  each  of  which  makes  a  per- 
manent solution  more  and  more  difficult.  The  case 
worker  to  whom  the  results  of  the  externally  imposed 
reconciliation  come  back  again  and  again  has  reason  to 
be  confirmed  in  a  distrust  of  short-cut  methods."* 

A  probation  officer  writes:  "Superficial  reconciliations 
invariably  result  unsatisfactorily.    In  one  case  a  recon- 

*  Colcord,  J.  C:  Article  on  "Desertion  and  Non-sup- 
port." Annals  of  the  American  Academy  of  Political  and 
Social  Science,  May,  1918,  p.  95. 

133 


BROKEN  HOMES 

ciliation  was  effected  before  the  husband  was  released  on 
probation.  This  was  done  apparently  in  the  hope  that 
it  would  influence  the  court  in  the  disposition  of  the  case. 
After  a  study  of  the  situation  had  been  made  by  .the  pro- 
bation officer,  it  was  found  that  the  wife  was  totally 
incompetent  as  a  housekeeper,  that  she  possessed  an 
antagonistic  disposition,  had  a  violent  temper,  and  that 
no  sincere  attachment  for  each  other  existed  between  the 
couple.  Before  any  constructive  measures  could  be  car- 
ried out  by  the  probation  officer  to  remedy  this  situation 
they  separated,  and  it  was  not  possible  thereafter  to 
adjust  the  differences  with  any  degree  of  satisfaction. 

"On  another  occasion  a  man  who  had  a  previous 
prison  record  and  had  displayed  criminal  tendencies  was 
arrested  for  desertion.  His  wife,  a  feeble-minded  woman 
with  one  child,  was  being  maintained  at  a  private  insti- 
tution at  county  expense.  Through  the  efforts  of  the 
district  attorney  a  reconciliation  was  effected  before  the 
case  was  disposed  of  in  court,  and  the  man  was  placed 
on  probation  upon  the  recommendation  of  the  prosecutor 
without  the  usual  preliminary  investigation  by  the  pro- 
bation department.  The  couple  began  to  live  together 
contrary  to  the  advice  of  the  probation  officer.  About 
two  months  later  the  man  was  arrested  for  committing 
a  series  of  burglaries  and  the  woman  was  found  to  be 
pregnant.  Efforts  which  had  been  made  by  the  proba- 
tion department  to  determine  her  mentality  disclosed 
her  to  be  feeble-minded;  h\vr  she  was  committed  to  a 
custodial  institution  for  fee  n '-miaded  women  of  child- 
ring  age.    The  man  was  d  to  a  state  prison." 

134 


THE  DETAILS  OF  TREATMENT 

However,  when  youth  and  high  temper  seem 
to  have  caused  the  trouble  and  there  is  real 
affection  to  build  upon,  a  speedy  resumption  of 
life  together  is  usually  the  best  thing. 

A  young  woman  with  one  baby  said  that  her  husband 
had  got  drunk  and  threatened  her  with  a  knife.  They 
quarreled  and  he  went  to  relatives  in  another  city. 
Neighbors  testified  how  devoted  the  couple  had  been  to 
each  other,  describing  the  young  man  as  handy  about 
the  house  though  "lazy  about  finding  work."  He  was 
visited  by  the  family  social  agency  in  the  city  to  which 
he  had  gone,  and  wrote  a  penitent  letter  asking  to  come 
home.  The  wife  agreed ;  the  man  immediately  returned, 
got  work,  and  succeeded  in  overcoming  his  incipient  bad 
habits.  The  death  of  the  baby  soon  after  his  return 
seemed  only  to  draw  the  couple  more  closely  together. 
The  case  was  soon  after  closed;  nothing  has  been  heard 
in  the  three  years  since  to  indicate  that  any  further 
trouble  has  developed. 

A  study  recently  made  under  the  auspices  of 
the  Philadelphia  Court  of  Domestic  Relations 
seems  to  show  somewhat  better  results  from 
court  reconciliations  than  might  have  been  ex- 
pected. One  thousand  and  two  couples  who 
were  reconciled  in  court  during  the  year  19 16 
were  visited  from  six  to  eighteen  months  later. 

135 


4 


BROKEN  HOMES 

Three  hundred  and  ten  had  separated  or  had 
had  further  differences  which  brought  them  to 
court;  Sj  could  not  be  found,  and  605,  or  about 
60  per  cent,  were  found  to  be  still  living  together, 
though  with  a  varying  degree  of  marital  happi- 
ness, as  the  report  somewhat  drily  states.* 

It  should  be  said  that  many  of  these  families 
were  probably  under  the  supervision  of  a  pro- 
bation officer  for  a  longer  or  shorter  period  after 
the  reconciliation  took  place.  There  is  no  state- 
ment as  to  the  number  of  repeated  deserters 
among  the  men,  and  we  cannot  estimate  how 
many  of  the  605  fell  within  the  group  which 
might  chance  to  have  the  proper  basis  for  rec- 
onciliation. 

The  practice  of  the  Desertion  Bureau  main- 
tained by  the  New  York  Association  for  Im- 
proving the  Condition  of  the  Poor  is  as  a  rule 
not  to  advise  reconciliations  without  a  definite 
preliminary  period  during  which  the  man  shall 
contribute  regularly  and  show  that  he  means 
business.  "The  kind  of  reconciliation  that  lasts 
is  the  one  that  is  effected  with  some  difficulty 
*  Philadelphia  Municipal  Court,  Report  for  19 16,  p.  64. 

136 


THE  DETAILS  OF  TREATMENT 

to  the  man,"  its  secretary  remarked.  The  same 
probation  department  which  furnished  the  stories 
of  hasty  and  unsuccessful  reconciHations,*  con- 
tributes this  remarkable  account  of  the  restora- 
tion of  a  family  through  slow  and  careful  char- 
acter rebuilding: 

George  Latham  had  shamefully  neglected  his  wife  and 
children  for  several  years.  He  drank  to  excess,  gambled 
considerably,  and  associated  with  women  of  loose  char- 
acter. He  came  from  good  stock,  however,  and  his  early 
training  had  been  excellent.  The  differences  between 
man  and  wife  seemed  impossible  to  adjust.  After  the 
man's  release  on  probation,  the  co-operation  of  relatives 
was  secured  and  through  the  aid  of  his  new  found  em- 
ployer efforts  were  made  toward  a  reconciliation.  The 
man  was  gradually  led  away  from  his  old  harmful  pur- 
suits and  tendencies,  these  being  replaced  by  wholesome 
activities.  He  was  induced  to  join  a  fraternal  organiza- 
tion, to  take  out  insurance  for  his  wife  and  child,  was 
encouraged  to  attend  church  regularly,  and  to  open  a 
bank  account.  When  his  sincerity  was  appreciated  by 
the  wife,  she  agreed  to  resume  housekeeping.  Under 
the  direction  of  the  probation  officer,  new  furniture  was 
purchased  and  the  home  re-established.  This  man  today 
holds  a  responsible  position  under  the  employer  who 
aided  in  his  rehabilitation,  and  occupies  a  respected  place 
in'  the  community. 

*  See  p.  133. 

137 


BROKEN  HOMES 

Very  many  processes  are  indicated  in  such  a 
story.  To  bring  about  the  conviction  of  wrong- 
doing, to  awaken  desire  and  supply  an  incen- 
tive, to  keep  the  hope  of  attainment  alive,  to 
encourage  weakened  nerves  in  a  new  and  per- 
sistent effort,  and  all  the  while  to  build  and 
strengthen  and  develop  faculties  and  powers 
that  had  been  dormant  and  well-nigh  destroyed, 
is  a  task  that  demands  a  high  order  of  skill  and 
resourcefulness. 

The  story  just  told  emphasizes  the  work  which 
was  done  with  the  husband.  Equally  careful 
work  had  undoubtedly  to  be  done  with  the  wife 
to  carry  her  along  with  the  plan.  The  period  of 
''stay-away  probation"  for  the  man  is  a  difficult 
time  for  the  woman.  Neighbors  and  friends 
know  that  he  is  taking  steps  in  the  direction  of 
reformation,  and  often  hold  the  attitude  that  it 
is  her  duty  to  let  bygones  be  bygones  and  receive 
him  again.  The  promptings  of  her  own  heart 
are  often  in  the  same  direction;  and  affection 
not  outlived  combines  with  custom,  religious 
precept,  and  economic  pressure  to  make  it 
almost  impossible  to  hold  to  her  decision.    The 

138 


THE  DETAILS  OF  TREATMENT 

social  worker  can  sometimes  slip  some  of  the 
burden  of  the  decision  off  the  woman's  shoulders 
to  her  own  by  exacting  a  promise  from  the  two 
that  they  will  not  try  living  together  until  the 
man  has  ''shown  what  he  can  do"  for  a  certain 
definite  time.  The  economic  pressure  can  be 
eased  by  a  wise  policy  of  relief;  but  most  of  all 
such  a  woman  needs  continued  encouragement 
from  a  person  whose  judgment  and  kindliness 
she  has  learned  to  trust.  This  is  another  good 
point  at  which  to  introduce  the  right  kind  of 
volunteer  visitor,  one  who  will  already  have 
established  friendly  relations  with  both  when  the 
time  of  readjustment  comes,  and  who  can  help 
bridge  over  that  difficult  period.  In  some  cases 
it  might  be  possible  and  desirable  to  procure  as 
volunteer  visitors  to  a  couple  whose  marital  rela- 
tions have  come  to  shipwreck,  another  married 
couple  who  have  learned  how  to  live  together 
successfully. 

The  use  of  carefully  chosen  volunteers  in 
effecting  reconciliations  by  the  case  work  method 
has  been  singularly  little  developed.  In  this 
respect  modern  theory  and  practice  have  both 

139 


BROKEN  HOMES 

fallen  behind.*  Especially  is  it  an  opportunity 
to  enlist  the  service  of  men,  whom  it  is  easy  to 
interest  in  a  problem  that  seems  to  focus  about 
the  man  of  the  family.  A  man  volunteer  can 
search  for  a  deserter  in  places  where  a  woman, 
by  being  conspicuous,  would  defeat  her  own  end. 
"Located  man  by  mingling  with  longshoremen 
on  the  docks  where  he  usually  worked"  could 
hardly  be  the  entry  of  a  woman  visitor.  A  man 
can  also  be  very  useful  in  court  cases,  to  counter- 
act the  prejudice  that  sometimes  exists  in  court 
rooms  against  the  testimony  of  social  workers 
who  are  women.  In  the  more  subtle  processes 
of  winning  the  man's  confidence  and  helping 
him  to  regenerate  his  life  and  recover  his  home 
there  is  no  preponderance  of  testimony  in  favor 
of  the  man  visitor.  Sex  lines  vanish  here; 
the  good  case  worker,  man  or  woman,  volunteer 
or  professional,  is  the  person  needed. 

Sometimes  the  difficulty  is  not  to  deter  the 

*  Miss  Richmond,  writing  in  1895,  says:  "We  would 
rather  have  a  hundred  visitors,  patient,  intelligent  and 
resourceful,  to  deal  with  the  married  vagabonds  of  our 
city,  than  the  best  law  ever  framed,  if,  in  order  to  get  such 
a  law,  we  must  lose  the  visitors." 

140 


THE  DETAILS  OF  TREATMENT 

wife  from  prematurely  taking  her  husband  back 
but  to  induce  her  to  relent  when  the  proper 
time  comes. 

Martin  Long  was  intemperate,  his  wife  was  high- 
tempered;  her  relatives  advised  her  to  leave  him  and  he 
deserted,  leaving  the  relatives  to  provide  for  her  and  the 
three  children.  He  was  away  two  years;  then,  becoming 
homesick  and  wanting  to  re-establish  his  home  if  pos- 
sible, he  returned.  The  wife  caused  his  arrest  when  he 
was  seeking  an  interview  with  her.  The  probation  officer 
in  whose  care  he  was  released  became  convinced  of  his 
genuine  sincerity  and  regret,  but  the  wife,  still  on  the 
advice  of  her  relatives,  refused  to  see  him.  He  persisted 
in  his  hope  of  a  reconcihation  and  made  extraordinary 
efforts  during  a  winter  of  industrial  depression,  putting 
his  pride  in  his  pocket  and  taking  laborer's  work,  which 
he  had  never  done  before.  He  finally  got  a  good  position 
and  saved  money  enough  to  begin  housekeeping.  The 
probation  officer  kept  in  touch  with  the  wife,  first  per- 
suading her  to  receive  a  letter  from  Mr.  Long  and  answer 
it  through  the  probation  office.  He  interested  her  in  the 
details  of  her  husband's  struggle,  and  finally,  after  a 
whole  year  of  probation  and  with  the  help  of  her  pastor, 
he  induced  her  to  return.  The  probation  officer  kept  in 
close  touch  with  the  family  for  some  months  and  reports: 
"Three  years  have  elapsed  since  that  time;  the  family 
is  now  in  a  nearby  city  where  they  are  living  harmoniously 
and  in  comfortable  circumstances." 

A  case  worker  who  is  remarkable  for  her  suc- 

141 


1^ 


BROKEN  HOMES 
cess  in  the  treatment  of  estranged  couples,  when 
asked  how  she  did  it  answered  laconically, 
"talks  and  talks  and  talks."  A  study  of  her 
case  records,  however,  shows  certain  points  that 
recur  again  and  again  in  her  treatment. 

She  encourages  man  and  wife,  separately,  to 
talk  out  their  grievances  thoroughly  and  get 
everything  out  of  their  systems.  She  then  pro- 
ceeds (with  a  lavish  expenditure  of  time,  as  indi- 
cated in  her  phrase)  to  convince  each  that  she 
is  a  friend,  but  an  impartial  friend.  She  does 
not  push  for  an  immediate  reconciliation,  is 
much  more  likely  to  recommend  a  temporary 
separation  until  tempers  cool  down  and  the 
true  facts  appear.  She  always  advises  strongly 
against  "argument"  and  "casting  up"  the  past, 
and  tells  the  couple  to  come  back  to  her  if  they 
want  to  discuss  their  grievances  further.  Above 
all,  they  are  not  to  retail  their  troubles  to  rela- 
tives and  friends.  If  either  or  both  are  out  of  the 
city  during  their  separation  she  keeps  in  close 
touch  with  them  by  letter.  She  is  quick  to 
utilize  their  interest  in  their  children  as  a  means 
of  reawakening  their  interest  in  each  other.    The 

142 


THE  DETAILS  OF  TREATMENT 

following  letters  illustrate  her  method.  The 
first  was  written  to  a  young  man  who  was  serving 
a  six  months'  sentence  for  desertion ;  the  others 
to  the  same  young  man  after  he  had  begun  a 
manful  struggle  to  "come  back,"  working  in  a 
munitions  plant  in  another  state  and  later  send- 
ing money  regularly  to  the  wife,  who  still  obdu- 
rately refused  to  forgive  him.  (The  letters  are 
part  of  a  series  of  27  which  were  written  to  him 
during  a  ten  months'  period.) 

My  dear  Mr.  Andrews: 

I  was  ever  so  glad  to  get  your  letter  this  week  and  I 
am  sorry  that  no  one  has  been  over  [to  the  workhouse] 
to  see  you  recently.  I  will  surely  be  over  within  the 
next  two  weeks.  I  know  you  are  anxious  and  you  should 
have  had  a  letter  telling  you  about  the  children.  They 
are  both  all  right  now  and  the  baby  is  out  of  the  hospital. 

We  have  had  a  nice  talk  with  your  aunt  and  she  is 
very  anxious  to  come  over  and  see  you.  We  will  all  get 
together  and  try  and  plan  what  is  the  right  thing  to  do 
when  you  come  out.  I  will  arrange  it  so  we  can  have  a 
little  longer  talk  this  time  if  possible. 

Very  truly  yours, 

District  Secretary. 

My  dear  Mr.  Andrews: 

Your  long  letter  has  just  arrived.  I  read  it  with  a 
great  deal  of  interest  and  pleasure.    It  is  fine  to  know 

10  143 


BROKEN  HOMES 

you  have  already  arrived  and  have  started  out  to  make 
good  on  your  promises. 

I  got  your  cards  during  the  week,  which  brought  the 
news  of  your  journey.  Also  on  Tuesday  morning  came 
your  last  letter,  expressing  your  appreciation  for  all  we 
had  tried  to  do  for  you  and  enclosing  two  more  thrift 
stamps  for  the  children.    I  put  these  in  their  books. 

Yesterday  I  had  a  nice  long  letter  from  your  father, 
enclosing  one  for  me  to  give  to  you.  I  am  sending  it 
on  just  as  it  is.  I  was  very  much  tempted  to  read  it 
but  have  not  done  so.  The  reason  I  was  tempted  was 
that  I  know  it  must  be  full  of  happiness  to  think  you 
have  made  such  a  good  start.  At  least  that  was  the 
tone  of  the  letter  he  wrote  to  me. 

During  the  past  years  I  have  worked  for  this  society 
I  have  seen  many  people  "come  back"  strong,  and 
always  it  has  been  because  they  had  some  big  motive  in 
life  and  reason  for  making  good.  But  I  have  seldom 
known  a  fellow  that  had  so  many  reasons  why  he  should 
make  good.  You  have  the  confidence  of  your  father  and 
your  aunt.  You  have  the  children  for  whom  you  will 
do  right.  You  have  Clara,  whom  you  have  wronged 
and  whom  you  will  have  to  teach  all  over  again  to  trust 
you.  Surely  all  these  things  added  to  your  own  firm  will 
to  try  and  undo  all  the  unhappiness  you  have  given 
people,  ought  to  help  you  every  day  as  you  prove  the 
good  stuff  that  is  in  you. 

I,  of  course,  telephoned  Clara  of  your  starting  off  and 
yesterday  she  came  to  the  office  and  we  had  a  long  talk. 
She  is  only  sorry  that  you  did  not  see  the  baby  and  says 

144 


THE  DETAILS  OF  TREATMENT 

she  will  be  only  too  glad  to  have  special  pictures  taken 
of  the  children  to  send  you.  This  was  after  I  suggested 
that  she  let  me  take  a  snapshot  of  them  to  send  you. 

Be  sure  and  write  to  your  father  and  aunt  often. 
And  please  remember  my  last  instructions,  which  were 
to  let  me  know  fully  about  yourself.  When  you  write, 
tell  me  all  about  the  camp  hfe;  how  they  arrange  the 
living;  how  long  hours  you  have  to  work;  what  they 
give  you  for  recreation,  etc.  Pick  out  for  your  friends 
men  who  can  help  you,  not  hinder  you,  in  your  good 
determinations,  and  hope  there  will  be  at  least  one  man 
there  in  whom  you  can  trust  and  to  whom  you  can  go 
for  advice. 

I  will  let  you  know  about  the  children  all  the  time. 
Clara  says  Nelhe  [the  small  daughter]  was  expecting  to 
see  you  again.    Don't  worry,  she  will  never  forget  you. 

With  all  good  wishes, 

Sincerely  yours. 

District  Secretary. 

My  dear  Mr.  A  ndrews: 

I  received  your  long  letter  this  morning  and  was  very 
glad  to  hear  all  the  details  of  camp  Hfe.  It  is  too  bad 
that  your  surroundings  are  not  more  comfortable,  but  I 
am  sure  you  can  stick  it  out  for  awhile.  If  you  can 
raise  yourself  to  be  foreman,  will  you  then  have  to  live 
in  the  same  uncomfortable  quarters?  Although  I  don't 
know  the  details,  I  should  think  it  would  be  well  if  you 
did  sign  up  for  the  six  months.  It  is  too  bad  that  your 
throat  is  still  hoarse. 

145 


BROKEN  HOMES 

Thank  you  for  letting  me  see  your  father's  letter. 
I  am  enclosing  it.  I  hope  you  are  keeping  in  touch  with 
him. 

You  asked  especially  about  Clara  and  whether  she 
asked  for  you.  Of  course  she  did,  and  she  wants  me  to 
say  if  there  is  anything  you  want  to  say  to  her  you  can 
send  the  letter  here  and  she  will  write  you.  She  thinks 
that  your  ambition  and  determination  to  make  good  is 
fine,  and  she  will  try  and  help  you  in  every  way.  She 
has  not  been  in  this  week  and  I  have  been  very  busy, 
but  I  shall  make  it  my  business  to  see  her  early  next 
week,  and  if  she  has  not  had  the  pictures  of  the  children 
taken,  I  will  get  that  attended  to  myself.    ... 

So  far  as  I  can  see  there  is  absolutely  nothing  for  you 
to  worry  about  from  this  end  of  the  line.  Clara  is  at 
last,  I  think,  as  fully  self-convinced  as  I  am  that  you  are 
making  a  splendid  effort,  and  she  is  perfectly  willing  to 
be  fair  in  waiting  until  you  have  a  chance  to  get  turned 
around  financially  and  in  making  first  payment  for  the 
children. 

Next  week  I  am  going  to  send  you  down  a  book  to 
read.  It  is  one  I  have  enjoyed  myself,  and  perhaps  some 
evenings  when  you  are  not  too  tired  you  will  get  a  chance 
to  glance  over  it.  It  is  small  and  you  can  put  it  in  your 
pocket.  Be  very  sure  I  have  not  forgotten  the  very  satis- 
factory talks  we  had  and  the  splendid  way  you  have 
grimly  started  out  to  make  good.  If  you  can  help  the 
Government  do  their  work,  even  down  there,  give  it  a 
good  try  out.  Never  mind  the  different  nationalities 
you  have  to  mix  with.     You  have  already  knocked 

146 


THE  DETAILS  OF  TREATMENT 

around  the  world  so  much  that  you  can  just  consider 
this  another  opportunity  of  getting  to  know  a  great 
variety  of  people.  You  might  even  learn  to  talk  Italian 
and  Greek!  There  is  no  experience  in  life  we  have  to  go 
through  but  can  be  a  source  of  great  education  to  us. 
You  are  sure  to  win  out  and  get  the  respect  of  every- 
body, your  fellow-workmen  as  well  as  your  superior 
officers,  if  you  continuously  day  in  and  day  out  simply 
refuse  to  get  discouraged  and  keep  up  your  work  and 
do  as  you  are  told.  Stick  by. 
With  all  good  wishes. 

Sincerely  yours, 

District  Secretary. 

But  when  all  is  said  and  done,  there  are  no    N 
unbreakable  rules  about  treatment.    A  form  of 
treatment  is  sometimes  to  do  nothing  at  all. 

Charles  Morgan,  a  middle-aged  machinist  with  a  wife, 
a  comfortable  home,  and  seven  children  (the  two  eldest 
grown),  picked  up  his  tools  and  disappeared,  after  a 
quarrel  over  his  wife's  extravagance.  He  had  been  earn- 
ing $50  a  week  in  a  shop  where  he  had  worked  for  eigh- 
teen years  and  he  would  not  endure  having  his  wages 
garnisheed  for  debt. 

An  experienced  case  worker  to  whom  furious  Mrs. 
Morgan  made  her  complaint,  decided,  after  studying 
Mr.  Morgan's  record,  that  he  ought  not  to  be  prosecuted, 
and  refused  to  be  party  to  it.  As  he  was  a  man  of  domestic 
habits,  search  was  made  in  a  nearby  city  where  he  had 

147 


BROKEN  HOMES 

relatives.  He  was  easily  traced.  Mr.  Morgan  was  both 
proud  and  reticent,  so  the  case  worker  made  no  attempt 
to  approach  him,  but  told  the  woman  she  must  devise 
some  way  to  get  him  back,  preferably  to  write  him  and 
say  she  was  sorry.  This  she  refused  to  do  and  on  her 
own  responsibility  adopted  the  clumsy  device  of  wiring 
him  that  a  favorite  child  was  sick.  This  brought  him 
''on  the  run,"  and,  being  back,  he  stayed.  The  case 
worker  has  never  seen  Mr.  Jlf .,  nor  has  his  wife  been  en- 
couraged to  come  any  more  to  the  office,  although  reports 
have  been  received  from  time  to  time  through  the  son 
and  daughter  that  things  at  home  continue  to  go  well. 


148 


VIII 

THE  HOME-STAYING  NON-SUPPORTER 

MANY  of  the  case  workers  consulted  in  gath- 
ering material  for  this  book  urged  that  a 
discussion  of  the  treatment  of  the  non-supporter 
who  had  not  deserted  be  included  in  its  pages. 
In  so  far  as  non-support  is  a  pre-desertion  symp- 
tom and  the  non-supporter  a  potential  deserter, 
much  that  has  been  said  applies  also  to  him. 
But  are  the  two  groups  co-terminous,  or  do  they 
only  partially  overlap? 

The  law  makes  little  difference  in  its  treatment 
of  the  two,  the  fact  of  failure  to  support  being 
the  chief  ground  of  its  interest.*  Indeed,  in 
Massachusetts,  the  law  under  which  deserters 

*  The  deserter  who  does  not  fail  to  support  is  usually 
safe  from  punishment  no  matter  how  aggravated  his 
offense.  A  man  living  with  his  wife  and  five-year-old  boy 
in  an  eastern  city  eloped  with  another  woman  to  a  city  in 
the  Middle  West.  The  couple  kidnapped  the  boy  and 
took  him  with  them;  and  the  distracted  woman,  bereft  of 
both  her  husband  and  child,  had  no  recourse  in  any  court, 
since  the  father  was  continuing  to  provide  for  his  son. 

149 


)^ 


BROKEN  HOMES 

are  extradited   for  abandonment  is  habitually 
spoken  of  as  the  "non-support  law." 

No  study  of  which  the  results  are  available 
has  been  made  to  learn  what  difference,  if  any, 
exists  between  the  non-supporter  who  leaves 
home  and  the  one  who  does  not.  Miss  Breed, 
in  making  the  point  that  the  true  analogy  of  the 
deserted  family  is  with  the  non-supported  family 
and  not  with  the  widow  and  her  children,  says: 
*'The  deserting  husband  is  at  home  the  non- 
supporting  husband."* 

A  case  reader  of  experience  writes:  "When  I  look 
back  over  the  many  records  I  have  read  and  studied,  it 
seems  to  me  that  it  is  very  difficult  to  draw  a  line  between 
desertion  and  non-support  cases,  either  in  the  kind  of 
problem  they  present,  or  in  the  treatment  of  them.  Do 
we  know  enough  about  non-supporters  who  later  become 
deserters;  and  isn't  it  possible  that  every  non-support 
case,  certainly  every  beginning  non-support  case,  is  a 
potential  desertion  case?  " 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  two  groups  grade 
imperceptibly  into  each  other ;  but  of  the  twenty 
or  more  case  workers  who  were  consulted  in  the 

*  Proceedings  of  the  New  York  State  Conference  of 
Charities  and  Correction,  1910,  p.  76. 

150 


THE  HOME-STAYING  NON-SUPPORTER 

preparation  of  this  material,  nearly  all  felt  that 
the  out-and-out  deserter,  if  he  can  be  got  hold 
of,  is  more  promising  material  to  work  with 
than  the  man  who  sits  about  the  home  and  lets 
others  maintain  it.  They  all  recognize  a  com- 
mon middle  ground  where  the  two  groups  merge 
into  each  other ;  but  they  see  decided  differences 
in  the  two  "wings"  so  to  speak,  outside  of  this 
common  ground. 

Seen  through  their  eyes,  the  non-supporter 
has  less  courage,  initiative  and  aggressiveness 
than  the  deserter.  "He  is  less  deliberately 
cruel — for  at  least  he  'sticks  around.'  "  He  has 
not  the  roving  disposition,  but  is  apt  to  be  in- 
temperate and  industrially  inefficient  as  com- 
pared with  the  deserter.  Often  the  married 
vagabond,  as  he  has  been  called,  is  a  "home- 
loving  man  who  simply  shirks  responsibility  and 
dislikes  effort."  He  may  "sometimes  feel  pa- 
rental responsibility  even  though  he  does  not 
support,"  and  he  is  likely  to  have  less  physical 
and  mental  stamina  than  the  deserter.  That 
phrase  in  which  the  psychiatrists  take  refuge, 
"constitutional   inferiority,"   is   more  likely   to 

151 


BROKEN  HOMES 

describe  the  stay-at-home  than  the  wanderer. 
However,  one  social  worker  (non-medical)  says 
"a  mental  twist  more  often  enters  into  the  prob- 
lem of  the  deserter  than  into  that  of  the  non- 
supporter,  from  my  experience." 

The  head  of  a  large  probation  department 
writes:  "Many  of  the  deserters  with  whom  we 
have  dealt  were  non-supporters  before  coming  to 
our  attention.  Among  the  men  convicted  of 
abandonment,  however,  is  a  group  which  is 
above  the  average  in  intelligence — skilled  work- 
ers or  men  in  professional  occupations." 

If  this  concurrence  of  observation  is  sound 
the  reason  for  the  social  worker's  preference  for 
the  deserter  as  material  with  which  to  work  is 
not  far  to  seek.  With  the  deserter  as  described, 
the  problem  is  chiefly  to  alter  his  point  of  view; 
with  the  non-supporter  it  is,  in  addition,  to 
stiffen  his  will  and  to  increase  his  capacity — a 
far  more  complicated  task. 

"The  deserter  is  likely  to  have  less  justifica- 

^     tion  than  the  non-supporter,"  says  an  observer  of 

long  experience.    Studies  which  have  been  made 

of  the  relative  capacity  of  the  wives  of  deserters 

152 


THE  HOME-STAYING  NON-SUPPORTER 

and  of  non-supporters  seem  to  agree  that  the 
latter  have  the  weaker  characters  and  are  less 
competent  and  successful  workers.  A  comment 
made  upon  one  such  study  points  out  the  im- 
possibility of  sound  conclusions,  if  both  chronic 
and  incipient  cases  are  included  in  the  two 
groups.  The  progressive  demoralization  in  the 
family  of  the  "intermittent  husband"  makes 
such  a  study  of  little  value  unless  this  distinc- 
tion is  taken  into  account. 

The  influence  of  ill-kept  homes  in  the  manu- 
facture of  non-supporting  husbands  has  been 
widely  recognized. 

A  drunkard's  daughter,  who  had  never  known  a  de- 
cent home,  married  a  young  man  who  soon  began  to 
drink  too.  Luckily,  the  young  couple  were  brought  in 
touch  with  a  volunteer  visitor  who,  on  finding  that  the 
wife  possessed  only  two  kitchen  utensils,  a  teakettle  and 
a  "frypan,"  and  actually  did  not  know  the  names  of  any 
others,  undertook  to  give  her  lessons  in  home  manage- 
ment. She  proved  teachable,  and  her  husband  stopped 
drinking  and  braced  up.  Some  years  later  the  visitor 
was  able  to  report  a  well  established  home,  although  the 
family  refused  to  move  out  of  the  poor  neighborhood  in 
which  they  lived  because  the  husband  had  been  elected 
councilman  for  that  district. 

153 


BROKEN  HOMES 

If  the  inefficient  wife  contributes  her  share  to 
this  form  of  family  breakdown  so  also  does  the 
overefficient  one.  Many  a  non-supporter  got 
***■  his  first  impulse  in  that  direction  when  his  wife 
became  a  wage-earner  in  some  domestic  crisis. 
"There's  only  one  rule  for  women  who  want  to 
have  decent  homes  for  their  children  and  them- 
selves," advised  a  wise  neighbor.  "  If  your  hus- 
band comes  home  crying,  and  says  he  can't  find 
any  work,  sit  down  on  the  other  side  of  the  fire 
and  cry  until  he  does.''* 

One  case  worker  comments  on  the  relation 
that  often  exists  between  an  inefficient  husband 
and  an  unusually  competent  wife,  made  up  of  a 
motherly  toleration  on  her  side  and  a  tacit  ac- 
ceptance on  his  that  he  is  not  expected  to  be 
the  provider.  "Sort  of  a  landlady's  husband" 
was  the  apt  description  of  one  such  man,  the 
speaker  having  in  mind  the  "silent  partner" 
who  does  odd  jobs  around  his  wife's  furnished- 
room  house.     The  lovable  old  rascal  portrayed 


*  Loane,   M.:    The   Queen's   Poor,   p.    102.     London, 
Edward  Arnold,  1905. 

154 


THE  HOME-STAYING  NON-SUPPORTER 

by  Frank  Bacon  in  his  play  "Lightnin'  "  is 
typical  of  this  kind  of  husband. 

There  is  no  ground  for  outside  interference  in 
such  an  arrangement  as  long  as  both  are  satis- 
fied and  the  family  as  a  unit  is  self-supporting. 
It  is  often  a  serious  problem  to  the  case  worker, 
however,  to  know  how  to  treat  such  a  family 
if  the  breadwinner-wife  becomes  incapacitated. 
Such  was  the  case  when  Mrs.  Laflin  fell  ill  with 
tuberculosis.  Her  relatives  described  her  hus- 
band as  "that  little  nonentity  of  a  man."  He 
had  no  bad  habits  and  was  pathetically  eager  to 
work,  but  though  only  a  little  over  fifty  he  was 
prematurely  aged  and  incapable.  The  solution 
had  finally  to  be  institutional  care  for  the  entire 
family,  Mrs.  Laflin  in  a  hospital  for  incurables, 
Mr.  Laflin  in  a  home  for  the  aged,  and  their 
two  young  daughters,  through  the  interest  of 
a  former  employer,  in  a  good  convent  school. 
"Uncomplicated"  non-support,  as  in  the  case 
of  Mr.  Laflin,  is,  however,  rare  in  the  experience 
of  the  social  worker. 

Out  of  a  group  of  51  non-supporters  selected 
at   random   from    the   records   of   the    Buff^alo 

155 


BROKEN  HOMES 

Charity  Organization  Society  in  191 7,  46  showed 
some  serious  moral  fault  other  than  non-support. 
Alcoholism  is  probably  the  commonest  of  these 
complications;  and,  as  has  been  pointed  out  in 
the  previous  chapter,  is  probably  a  primary  cause 
as  well.  It  will  be  a  matter  of  great  interest  to 
social  workers  whether  the  "non-support  rate" 
is  reduced  after  July  i,  191 9.  Grounds  for  hope 
that  it  may  be  are  found  in  the  fact  that  some 
remarkable  results  have  been  obtained  by  mov- 
ing alcoholic  non -supporters  and  their  families 
from  "wet"  into  "dry"  territory. 
J  Another  vice  that  has  a  direct  relation  to  non- 
support  (much  more  direct  than  to  desertion)  is 
gambling.  The  gambler  carries  no  signs  of  his 
vice  upon  his  person  as  does  the  inebriate,  and 
it  is  therefore  hard  to  detect.  It  undoubtedly 
does  not  appear  in  social  case  records  as  fre- 
quently as  it  should.  Case  workers  should  have 
it  in  mind  as  a  possible  explanation,  whenever 
there  is  a  marked  discrepancy  between  what  a 
non-supporter  earns  and  what  he  contributes  to 
the  home. 

With  the  non-supporters  rather  than  with  the 

156 


THE  HOME-STAYING  NON-SUPPORTER 

deserters  should  be  put  the  group  of  men  whose 
wives  tire  of  supporting  them  and  either  put 
them  out  or  leave  them.  These  men  are  often 
not  only  morally,  but  mentally  and  physically, 
so  handicapped  that  there  is  nothing  to  be  gained 
by  constantly  pursuing  and  arresting  them,  al- 
though some  wives  extract  the  sweets  of  revenge 
from  doing  just  this.  Few  courts  of  domestic 
relations  are  without  some  wives  as  regular 
patrons  who  pursue  their  husbands  not  for  gain 
but  for  sport.  For  the  most  part,  however,  the 
wives  of  such  men  are  philosophical.  "I  only 
wash  for  meself  now,"  said  one  of  them. 

These  men,  and  the  unreclaimed  deserters, 
doubtless  make  up  a  large  part  of  the  floating 
population  of  homeless  men  in  our  large  cities. 
How  large  a  part  it  is  impossible  to  say,  for 
they  are  likely  to  give  assumed  names  and  deny 
the  possession  of  families.  Mrs.  Solenberger* 
has  noted,  however,  that  if  they  are  asked,  not 
"Are  you  married?"  but  a  less  direct  question 
such  as  "Where  is  your  wife  now?"  a  story  of 

*  Solenberger,  Alice  VVillard :  One  Thousand  Homeless 
Men,  p.  22.     New  York,  Russell  Sage  Foundation,  191 1. 

157 


BROKEN  HOMES 

unfortunate  married  life  will  often  be  elicited. 
Until  we  have  some  better  method  of  inter-city 
registration  of  homeless  men,  many  of  these  who 
otherwise  might  be  identified  and  in  suitable 
cases  brought  back,  will  continue  to  slip  through 
our  fingers. 

With  non-support  in  an  incipient  stage,*  it  is 
sometimes  possible  to  deal  so  suddenly  and 
effectively  that  the  man  is  shocked  into  a  better 
realization  of  his  responsibilities. 

A  young  Irish  rigger,  with  a  capable  wife  and  two 
pretty  babies,  lost  his  job  after  a  quarrel  with  his  boss 
rigger.  He  was  a  genial,  popular  chap,  always  "the  life 
of  the  party"  in  his  circle;  and  his  companions  encour- 
aged him  to  feel  that  he  was  a  much  injured  man.  They 
also  helped  him  to  fill  his  enforced  leisure  with  too  much 
beer.  When  the  family  received  a  dispossess  notice  the 
wife's  patience  was  at  an  end,  and  acting  on  the  advice 
of  a  society  engaged  in  family  case  work,  she  put  the 
furniture  in  storage  and  went  to  a  shelter  where  she 
could  leave  her  children  in  the  daytime,  while  she  was 
at  work,  and  have  them  with  her  at  night.  The  man 
was  told  to  shift  for  himself  until  he  could  get  together 

*  For  a  consideration  of  possible  lines  of  treatment  for 
the  non-supporter  and  his  family,  the  reader  is  referred  to 
Chapter  VH,  where  is  discussed  the  treatment  of  the  de- 
serter who  is  willing  to  return. 

158 


THE  HOME-STAYING  NON-SUPPORTER 

sufficient  money  to  re-establish  the  home.  The  arrange- 
ment continued  for  nearly  two  months,  during  which  the 
man  lived  in  lodging  houses,  had  an  attack  of  stomach 
trouble,  and  was  altogether  thoroughly  miserable.  Every 
m"ght  he  waited  for  a  word  with  his  wife  on  a  corner 
that  she  had  to  pass  in  coming  from  work.  Finally, 
when  it  seemed  to  the  social  worker  and  to  the  wife  that 
his  lesson  had  gone  far  enough,  the  home  was  re-estab- 
lished, with  only  a  small  amount  of  help  from  the  society. 
During  the  five  years  since  that  time,  no  recurrence  of 
the  trouble  has  come  to  the  attention  of  the  agency  in- 
terested. 

This  experiment  was  realized  to  be  a  ticklish 
one,  as  a  man  less  sincerely  attached  to  his  home 
might  have  been  turned  into  a  vagabond  by 
such  treatment. 

In  general,  it  may  be  said  that,  as  there  is 
less  to  work  on  constructively  with  the  non- 
supporter,  court  action  has  more  often  to  be 
invoked.  If  the  non-supporter  is  a  "chronic," 
his  path  must  not  be  allowed  to  be  too  easy. 
"  Sometimes'you  just  have  to  keep  pestering  him  " 
was  the  way  one  social  worker  put  it.  A  Red 
Cross  Home  Service  worker  successfully  shocked 
one  elderly  non-supporter  into  going  to  work,  as 
described  in  one  of  the  Red  Cross  publications : 

"  159 


BROKEN  HOMES 

"Well,  Mr.  Gage,"  I  said,  "I  see  you're  not  working 
yet." 

"No,  Mrs.  Cox,  the  coal  company  promised  to  send 
for  me." 

"Well,"  I  said,  "I  think  youVe  been  pretty  fair  with 
that  company.  You've  waited  on  it  for  three  months 
now.  If  I  had  the  offer  of  another  job  I'd  feel  perfectly 
free  to  take  it,  if  I  were  you." 

"Yes,"  he  said,  "I  think  I  should." 

"All  right,  I  have  a  job  for  you,"  said  I.  "My  hus- 
band wants  a  man  now  at  his  garage,  to  clean  automo- 
biles. The  hours  are  from  6  p.m.  to  6  a.m.,  and  you'll 
earn  $15  a  week.'* 

His  paper  fell  from  his  hands  to  the  floor;  his  jaw 
dropped,  and  he  just  looked  at  me.  Then  he  tried  to 
crawl  out  of  it  and  began  to  make  excuses. 

I  haven't  time  to  argue  with  you,  Mr.  Gage,"  I  said. 
I'll  keep  the  job  open  till  seven  o'clock  tonight  and 
you  can  let  me  know  then  whether  you'll  take  it  or  not." 

At  seven  he  came  to  say  he'd  take  the  job.* 

If  in  desertion  cases  the  interest  centers  very 
vividly  about  the  absent  man,  in  non-support 
cases  the  reverse  is  likely  to  be  true,  because  he 
is  often  not  very  interesting  per  se,  and  because, 
moreover,  he  is  always  on  the  spot  and  does 

*  Behind  the  Service  Flag,  pamphlet  ARC  211,  Amer- 
ican Red  Cross,  Department  of  Civilian  Relief. 

160 


THE  HOME-STAYING  NON-SUPPORTER 

not  have  to  be  searched  for.  Familiarity  cer- 
tainly breeds  contempt  for  the  non-supporter. 
Consequently  the  social  worker  may  easily  fall 
into  the  danger  of  disregarding  the  human  factors 
he  presents,  and  either  treating  the  family  as  if 
he  did  not  exist  or  expending  no  further  effort 
on  him  than  to  see  that  he  "puts  in"  six  months 
of  every  year  in  jail  if  possible  (since  the  law 
usually  secures  to  him  the  privilege  of  loafing 
the  other  six).  It  is  not  safe,  however,  to  regard 
even  the  most  leisurely  of  non-supporters  as 
beyond  the  possibility  of  awakening.  One  dis- 
trict secretary  who  had  thus  given  a  man  up 
had  the  experience  of  seeing  him  transformed 
into  a  steady  worker  after  a  few  months  of  in- 
tensive effort  by  a  first-year  student  in  a  school 
of  social  science,  whose  only  equipment  for  the 
job  was  personality  and  enthusiasm.  So  re- 
markable are  some  of  the  reclamations  that  have 
been  brought  about  with  seemingly  hopeless  non- 
supporters  that  all  possible  measures  should  be 
tried  before  giving  one  of  them  up. 

His  Scotch  ancestry,  a  good  wife,  luck,  and  a  friend 
with  insight  and  skill,  pulled  Aleck  Gray  out  of  that 

i6i 


BROKEN  HOMES 

bottomless  pit,  the  gutter.  Aleck  had  been  a  bookkeeper; 
but  he  didn't  get  on  well  with  his  employers,  lost  his 
job,  got  to  drinking,  and  went  so  far  downhill  that  his 
wife  had  to  take  their  two  children  and  go  home  to  her 
people  several  hundred  miles  away.  Aleck  finally  drifted 
into  a  bureau  for  homeless  men,  where  the  agent  became 
interested  in  him  and  worked  with  him  for  six  months, 
getting  him  job  after  job,  which  he  always  lost  through 
drink  or  temper.  He  seemed  incapable  of  taking  direc- 
tions or  working  with  other  people.  In  all  that  time  the 
agent  felt  that  he  was  getting  no  nearer  the  root  of 
Aleck's  trouble,  though  he  came  back  after  each  dismissal 
and  doggedly  took  whatever  was  offered.  Finally,  the 
agent's  patience  wore  thin,  and  when  Aleck  had  been 
more  than  usually  dour  and  aggravating  it  went  entirely 
to  pieces.  Aleck  listened  to  his  outburst  apparently  un- 
moved; then  said,  "Very  well,  if  you  want  to  know  what 
would  make  me  stop  drinking,  I'll  tell  you.  If  1  could 
see  any  ray  of  hope  that  I  was  on  the  way  to  getting  my 
home  and  family  back,  I'd  stop  and  stop  quick."  On  the 
agent's  desk  there  happened  to  be  a  letter  from  a  friend 
who  wanted  a  tenant  farmer.  He  thrust  it  into  Aleck's 
hand  saying,  "There's  your  chance  if  you  mean  what 
you  say."  The  man's  reply  was  to  ask  when  he  could 
get  a  train.  At  the  end  of  several  weeks  Aleck  wrote 
that  he  had  not  drunk  a  drop  and  was  making  good, 
which  was  enthusiastically  confirmed  by  his  employer. 
He  begged  the  agent  to  intercede  with  his  wife,  and  a 
letter  went  to  her  which  brought  the  telegraphic  reply, 
"Starting  tomorrow." 

162 


THE  HOME-STAYING  NON-SUPPORTER 

How  they  got  through  the  first  winter  the  agent  never 
knew  exactly.  But  they  pulled  through  and  the  next 
year  was  easy,  as  country-born  Aleck's  skill  came  back. 
Six  years  later,  during  which  time  the  agent  heard  from 
them  once  or  twice  a  year,  Aleck  was  still  keeping 
straight,  the  children  were  doing  well  in  school,  and  the 
family,  prosperous  and  happy,  had  bought  a  farm  of 
their  own  in  another  state. 


163 


IX 

NEXT  STEPS  IN  CORRECTIVE  TREAT- 
MENT 

ANY  discussion  of  laws,  their  application, 
^  and  enforcement,  must  perforce  be  very 
general,  since  the  different  states  vary  greatly  in 
laws  governing  desertion  and  in  equipment  for 
their  enforcement.  Suggestions  for  a  uniform 
federal  desertion  law  are  not  considered  here; 
the  term  "next  steps"  should  be  read  as  mean- 
ing not  plans  in  actual  prospect  but  rather  the 
increase  in  legal  facilities  desirable  from  the 
social  worker's  point  of  view.  In  communities 
where  no  such  facilities  exist,  social  workers  are 
in  a  good  position  to  collect  illustrative  material 
and  push  for  desirable  changes  in  law  and  law 
enforcement.  Especially  advantageous  is  the 
position  of  the  legal  social  agencies  such  as  legal 
aid  societies  and  special  bureaus  and  committees 
for  increasing  the  efEciency  of  the  courts,  many 

164 


NEXT  STEPS  IN  CORRECTIVE  TREATMENT 

of  which  are  affiliated  with  or  maintained  by  the 
large  family  work  societies. 

1.  Measures  for  the  Discovery,  Extradition  or  De- 
portation of  the  Deserter. — The  nation-wide  regis- 
tration of  males  between  certain  ages,  under  the 
Selective  Service  Act,  was  widely  utilized  by 
social  workers  in  finding  deserting  men,  with  the 
hearty  co-operation  usually  of  the  draft  boards. 
This  fact  forms  no  argument  for  universal  regis- 
tration as  it  was  carried  on  in  Germany  before 
the  war;  no  system  which  meant  such  cumber- 
some machinery  or  so  much  interference  with 
the  freedom  of  the  individual  ought  to  be  advo- 
cated for  a  moment  if  it  were  solely  for  the  pur- 
pose of  keeping  track  of  the  small  percentage  of 
citizens  who  wish  to  evade  their  responsibilities, 
marital  and  other.  Even  such  a  non-military  ^ 
device  as  that  which  obligates  every  person  to 
register  successive  changes  of  address  with  the 
postal  authorities  to  facilitate  delivery  of  mail 
would  be  contrary  to  the  American  spirit  and 
easily  evaded  by  people  interested  in  concealing 
their  whereabouts,  unless  enforced  with  all  the 

165 


A 


BROKEN  HOMES 

rigor  of  the  European  police  system.  But 
though  we  can  advocate  no  system  of  manhood 
registration,  we  can  avail  ourselves  of  the  inci- 
dental benefits  of  any  that  may  be  in  force. 

The  Federal  Employment  Service  offers  a 
promising  means  of  help  in  discovering  the  move- 
ments of  deserters  whose  trade  and  probable 
destination  are  known.  It  should  be  entirely 
possible  to  work  out  a  system  by  which  the 
managers  of  the  local  employment  bureaus 
should  be  furnished  with  name,  description, 
copy  of  photograph,  and  so  on,  of  a  deserter 
who  is  being  sought,  so  that  the  man  if  recog- 
nized could  be  traced  or  quickly  apprehended  if 
a  warrant  is  already  in  the  hands  of  the  local 
police  authorities.  It  may  even  be  possible, 
under  the  federal  employment  service,  to  develop 
the  long  wished  for  national  registration  of  casual 
and  migratory  labor.  Need  for  some  such  system 
has  been  felt  by  all  agencies  trying  to  deal  con- 
structively with  vagrants  and  homeless  men. 
Little  track  can  be  kept  not  only  of  the  indi- 
vidual wanderer  but  of  the  ebb  and  flow  of  the 
tides  of  "casual  labor"  without  some  system  of 

i66 


NEXT  STEPS  IN  CORRECTIVE  TREATMENT 

this  sort.  If  employment  bureaus  were  required 
to  forward  to  a  central  registry  the  names  and 
some  identifying  particulars  of  every  non-resi- 
dent who  applied  for  employment,  the  problem 
of  finding  the  deserter  would  be  rendered  ten 
times  easier  than  it  is  now. 

One  present  obstacle  to  this  and  other  im- 
provements is  the  attitude  of  authorities — city, 
state,  and  federal — toward  wife  desertion.  We 
have  already  mentioned  the  way  in  which  the 
task  of  tracing  the  deserter  has  been  thrust 
back  upon  the  wife  and  the  social  worker,  as  if 
he  were  not  an  offender  against  the  community 
as  well  as  against  his  wife  and  children.  Almost 
as  widespread  is  the  reluctance  of  the  proper 
authorities  to  arrest  the  deserter  and  bring  him 
back  after  he  has  been  found.  A  general  atmos- 
phere of  indifference  and  despair  of  accomplish- 
ing anything  worth  while  surrounds  any  attempt 
to  push  the  prosecution  of  a  man  who  has  taken 
refuge  outside  the  community.  Hope  for  the 
future  lies  in  socializing  the  point  of  view  of 
court  officials,  police,  and  district  attorneys — a 
process  in  which  the  social  worker  must  play  a 

167 


BROKEN  HOMES 

large  part.  No  chance  should  be  lost  to  drive 
home  the  social  and  economic  waste  involved, 
by  using  the  illustrative  material  which  abounds 
in  the  files  of  most  case  work  agencies. 
jK<  The  pernicious  system  by  which  the  wife  is 
f  required  to  serve  summons  and  warrant  upon 
the  offending  husband  who  is  still  in  the  same 
city,  should  be  done  away  with  entirely.  The 
social  agency,  public  or  private,  which  has  had 
to  support  or  assist  the  man's  family  ought  to 
be  able  to  prefer  a  charge  for  non-support,  and 
to  take  out  a  summons  or  a  warrant  and  serve 
it  without  the  wife's  being  present.  The  agency 
should  in  this  case  protect  itself  by  securing 
from  the  wife  a  signed  afilidavit  and  authorization 
to  act  in  her  behalf.  It  may  seem  unimportant 
whether  the  wife  makes  such  complaint  in  the 
court  or  to  a  private  society.  The  psychological 
effect  upon  the  man  is,  however,  very  different. 
If  his  wife  initiates  the  complaint  in  court,  his 
/  resentment  is  directed  toward  her — a  fact  which 
renders  reconciliation  more  difficult  if  this  is  later 
attempted.  In  other  cases,  for  the  wife  to  make 
the  complaint  puts  her  in  actual  physical  danger 

1 68 


NEXT  STEPS  IN  CORRECTIVE  TREATMENT 

from  the  vindictive  husband.  If  he  is  brought 
into  court  on  the  complaint  of  a  social  agency, 
part  of  that  resentment  at  least  is  transferred  to 
the  intrusive  social  worker,  who  is  not  usually 
seriously  troubled  thereby  and  is  far  better  able 
to  bear  the  weight  of  the  husband's  displeasure 
than  is  his  poor  wife. 

The  absence  of  any  treaty  with  Great  Britain 
by  which  family  deserters  can  be  extradited  to 
or  from  Canada  makes  the  Dominion  a  place  of 
refuge  for  many  American  evaders  of  family 
responsibilities.  The  National  Conference  of 
Charities  and  Correction,*  at  its  meeting  in 
Cleveland  in  1912,  passed  a  resolution  on  the 
need  for  such  a  treaty.  As  a  result,  largely 
through  the  efforts  of  Mr.  William  H.  Baldwin, 
the  treaty  was  signed  and  sent  to  the  Senate 
for  ratification  in  December,  19 16.  It  was  re- 
ferred to  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Relations, 
where  it  met  with  objection  and  has  remained 
without  action  up  to  the  present.  The  National 
Conference  of  Jewish  Charities,  at  its  meeting 

*  Now  changed  to  The  National  Conference  of  Social 
Work. 

169 


BROKEN  HOMES 

in  Kansas  City  in  May,  191 8,  sent  urgent  repre- 
sentations to  the  Senate  Committee,  which  it  is 
hoped  may  result  in  ratification  after  the  pres- 
sure of  war-time  legislation  is  relaxed. 

We  should  not  stop  when  reciprocal  extradi- 
tion with  Canada  has  been  secured;  there  is  a 
similar  situation  on  our  southern  border  in 
states  from  which  escape  into  Mexico  is  easy. 
While  American  deserters  are  not  likely  to  go 
to  other  more  remote  countries  than  these  two, 
immigration  into  America  from  other  countries 
creates  desertion  problems  in  other  places  and 
presents  us  with  a  class  of  undesirables  with 
whom  it  is  difficult  to  deal  under  existing  immi- 
gration laws.  In  19 1 2  a  report  was  submitted 
to  the  Glasgow  Parish  Council  showing  the 
alarming  amount  of  dependency  created  in  that 
one  city  by  the  emigration  to  America  and  the 
Colonies  of  men  without  their  families,  and  who 
subsequently  drifted  into  the  status  of  deserters. 
This  report  makes  the  interesting  suggestion 
/  that  no  married  man  be  permitted  to  emigrate 
without  his  family  unless  he  presents  a  "written 
sanction  of  the  Parish  Council  or  other  local 

170 


NEXT  STEPS  IN  CORRECTIVE  TREATMENT 

authority,"  and  further,  that  he  be  bound,  under 
penalty  of  deportation,  to  report  himself  to 
some  authority  in  the  country  of  his  destination, 
which  would  satisfy  itself  as  to  his  conduct  and 
insure  that  he  did  his  duty  by  wife  and  family.* 
Such  a  provision  would  of  course  involve  the 
revision  of  our  own  immigration  laws,  making 
wife  and  family  desertion  a  crime  thereunder. 

At  present  the  law  provides  deportation  only 
within  five  years  after  entry,  and  for  "  persons 
who  have  been  convicted  of  or  admit  having 
committed  a  felonv  or  other  crime  or  misde- 
meanor  involving  moral  turpitude,"  or  who  are 
sentenced  to  a  term  of  one  year  or  more  in  this 
country,  within  five  years  of  entry,  for  such 
crime  (or  who  may  suffer  a  second  conviction 
at  any  time  after  entry).  This  would  clearly 
cover  bigamy  committed  within  five  years  after 
entry;  whether  it  could  be  stretched  to  cover 
lesser  forms  of  marital  irresponsibility  remains 
to  be  determined.     (It  should  be  remembered 

*  Mption,  J.  R.:  Wife  and  Family  Desertion:  Emigra- 
tion as  a  Contributory  Cause.  Glasgow  Parish  Council, 
1912. 

171 


BROKEN  HOMES 

that  a  man  who  brings  in  as  his  wife,  or  later 
sends  for,  a  woman  to  whom  he  is  not  married, 
can  be  deported  under  quite  other  sections  of 
the  immigration  law.) 

2.  Improvements  in  Court  Procedure. — A  sore 
point  with  the  social  worker  is  the  often  ridicu- 
lously inadequate  amounts  that  unwilling  hus- 
bands are  put  under  court  order  to  pay.  They 
accuse  the  courts,  whether  rightly  or  wrongly, 
of  considering  first  what  part  of  the  man's 
alleged  earnings  will  be  needed  for  him  to  live 
upon  comfortably,  and  then  of  making  the  order 
for  whatever  may  be  left  over. 

Onofrio  Mancini  was  under  court  order  to  stay  away 
from  home  and  pay  his  wife  $6.00  a  week  for  the  support 
of  their  two  children.  He  drove  a  two-horse  truck,  and, 
at  that  time,  must  have  been  earning  not  less  than  $16.00 
a  week.  Mrs.  Mancini  fell  ill,  whereupon  Onofrio 
promptly  ceased  all  payments.  The  social  agency  in- 
terested was  permitted  to  make  a  complaint  on  produc- 
ing a  doctor's  certificate  that  Mrs.  Mancini  could  not 
appear  in  court;  but  Onofrio,  when  he  appeared,  put  up 
such  a  hard  luck  tale  of  earning  only  $8.00  a  week  that 
the  judge,  without  investigation,  cut  the  order  down  to 
$4.00  a  week  and  ordered  Onofrio  to  return  home  to  live. 

172 


NEXT  STEPS  IN  CORRECTIVE  TREATMENT 

A  bulletin  issued  by  the  Seybert  Institution 
of  Philadelphia  gives  a  very  interesting  set  of 
diagrams  showing  the  relation  (or  lack  of  rela- 
tion) between  the  amount  of  man's  income,  size 
of  family,  and  the  court  order  issued  in  the 
Philadelphia  Municipal  Court.* 

This  report  gives  a  series  of  illustrations, 
where  glaring  inconsistencies  between  the  man's 
earnings  and  the  court  order  were  observed  by 
visitors  to  the  court.  A  sample  of  the  reports 
made  by  these  visitors  is  as  follows: 

"Man  earning  $30  to  $40  a  week  at  ammunition  fac- 
tory. Can  earn  $20  with  no  overtime.  Has  been  send- 
ing woman  $10  a  week  but  has  threatened  to  leave  town. 
Judge  said:  'You  can't  keep  up  $10  a  week — how  much 
can  you  give?'  Finally  ordered  $8  a  week.  Woman 
said  she  couldn't  live  on  that  and  Judge  told  her  she 
had  to  go  to  work  herself  then;  that  they  should  Uve 
together  anyway.  Woman  says  she  is  unable  to  work — is 
ill.  When  man  stated  he  was  giving  $10  great  consterna- 
tion seemed  to  take  hold  of  the  entire  court  force.    He 

*  Handling  of  Cases  by  the  Juvenile  Court  and  Court  of 
Domestic  Relations  of  the  Philadelphia  Municipal  Court. 
Bulletin  2,  Bureau  for  Social  Research,  the  Seybert  Insti- 
tution, Philadelphia,  19 18. 

173 


BROKEN  HOMES 

did  not  say  he  couldn't  pay  $io;   the  judge  simply  told 
him  he  couldn't  keep  that  up." 

The  practice  of  assigning  less  than  half  the 
man's  weekly  earnings  to  the  wife  and  children 
has  been  defended  on  the  ground  that  if  he  is 
forced  to  live  too  economically,  he  will  disappear 
and  the  family  will  be  left  with  nothing.  This 
would  seem  to  be  a  self-confession  on  the  part 
of  the  court  that  it  cannot  enforce  its  reasonable 
requirements.  It  would  appear  that  the  first 
hing  to  be  considered  is  the  minimum  needs  of 
the  wife  and  children,  taking  into  consideration 
whether  the  wife  can  be  expected  to  contribute 
anything  toward  her  own  support  or  whether 
all  her  time  is  needed  for  her  children.  This 
amount  should  be  cut  down  only  when  there 
is  actually  not  enough  left  for  the  man  to  live 
on;  and  his  wife  and  children  should  not  be 
pinched  for  necessities  in  order  that  he  may 
have  luxuries  or  indulge  in  vices.  The  habit 
some  judges  have  of  accepting  the  man's  own 
statement  on  oath  as  to  what  his  earnings  are 
is  responsible  for  many  unjust  orders.  A  man 
who  does  not  want  to  contribute  to  his  family's 

174 


NEXT  STEPS  IN  CORRECTIVE  TREATMENT 

support  is  almost  sure  to  understate  his  earn- 
ings, oath  or  no  oath;  and  the  confirmation  of 
his  employer  (or  when  the  employer  is  suspected 
of  being  in  league  with  him,  the  inspection  of 
the  employer's  books  by  the  probation  officer)  is 
often  needed.  Probably  the  most  difficult  form 
of  evasion  to  combat  is  that  of  the  man  who 
deliberately  takes  a  lower  salary  than  he  is 
capable  of  earning,  so  as  to  have  less  to  give 
his  wife.  Surprising  as  it  may  seem,  this  is  a 
common  practice;  but  skilful  probation  work 
can  nevertheless  find  a  remedy. 

In  cases  of  suspended  sentence,  payments 
ought  always  to  be  made  through  the  court  and 
not  handed  by  the  man  to  his  wife.  It  is  better 
to  have  the  amount  received  and  transmitted 
by  some  bureau  attached  to  the  court,  and  so 
managed  that  the  man  can  send  the  money  in 
without  "knocking  off  work"  to  bring  it  and 
that  the  woman  can  receive  it  by  mail.  The 
probation  officer  should  not  be  bothered  with 
the  actual  handling  of  the  money,  but  he  should 
be  promptly  notified  of  any  delinquency  in  the 
payments. 

^2  175 


BROKEN  HOMES 

Whether  the  man  under  court  order  is  on 
probation  or  not,  the  cessation  of  payments 
should  automatically  reopen  the  case.  At  pres- 
ent, in  most  courts,  the  order  goes  by  default 
until  the  wife  comes  in  to  make  another  charge. 
This,  through  discouragement  or  fear  of  a  beat- 
ing from  the  man,  she  often  neglects;  with  the 
result  that  the  orders  of  the  court  mean  little 
in  the  eyes  of  the  men,  and  that  arrears,  once 
allowed  to  mount  up,  are  never  cleared  off. 

This  statement  applies  as  well  to  long  term 
orders  for  separate  support  where  the  circum- 
stances are  such  that  no  reconciliation  is  con- 
templated. These  orders  are  now  made  for  a 
definite  period  of  months,  at  the  end  of  which 
time  the  case  drops  unless  the  wife  renews 
charges.  A  case  of  this  sort  ought  not  to  be 
terminable  without  a  reinvestigation  and  final 
hearing  in  court.  Indeed  it  would  seem,  in  such 
cases,  that  the  children  involved  should  have 
at  least  as  much  protection  as  the  children  in 
bastardy  proceedings,  and  that  the  order  should 
be  made  to  cover  the  term  of  years  until  the 
oldest  child  becomes  of  working  age. 

176 


NEXT  STEPS  IN  CORRECTIVE  TREATMENT 

The  most  important  step  in  advance  with 
regard  to  payments  is  undoubtedly  the  law 
which  has  been  tried  with  signal  success  in  the 
District  of  Columbia  and  in  the  states  of  Ohio 
and  Massachusetts,  requiring  men  serving  prison 
sentences  for  non-support  and  abandonment  to 
be  made  to  work,  and  a  sum  of  money,  repre- 
senting their  earnings,  to  be  turned  over  to  their 
families. 

In  an  interesting  paper  in  the  Survey  for 
November  20,  1909,  entitled  "Making  the  De- 
serter Pay  the  Piper,"  Mr.  William  H.  Baldwin 
discusses  in  detail  how  this  plan  was  made  to 
work  successfully  in  the  District  of  Columbia. 

The  movement  for  special  courts  to  consider 
cases  of  juvenile  delinquency  and  marital  rela- 
tions has  gained  such  headway  that  no  word 
needs  to  be  said  here  in  its  favor.  In  communi- 
ties where  the  volume  of  court  business  permits 
such  courts  to  be  separately  organized,  they  are 
generally  accepted  as  the  only  means  of  handling 
these  matters.  In  smaller  communities  the  need 
may  be  met  by  setting  aside  regular  sessions  of 
the  magistrates'  courts  for  this  purpose. 

177 


BROKEN  HOMES 

Juvenile  courts  and  domestic  relations  courts 

having  proved  a  success  separately,  there  is  a 

strong  movement  on  foot  to  combine  them  into 

^one  court,  for  which  the  name  Family  Court  has 

^  been  proposed. 

A  leader  in  this  movement  is  Judge  Hoffman 
of  the  Family  Court  of  Cincinnati,  which  he 
describes  thus: 

"The  Court  of  Cincinnati  was  organized  for  the  pur- 
pose of  dealing  with  the  family  as  a  unit  and  to  ascertain 
possibly  the  cause  of  its  disruption.  It  has  exclusive 
jurisdiction  in  all  divorce  and  alimony  cases,  and  all 
matters  coming  under  the  Juvenile  Court  Act.  It  also 
has  jurisdiction  in  cases  of  failure  to  provide.  The  ideal 
court  would  include  in  connection  with  the  foregoing 
functions,  adoption  of  children,  the  issuing  of  marriage 
licenses,  and  bastardy  cases."* 

One  advantage  of  this  plan  is  the  economy 
it  effects  in  the  time  of  probation  officers.  It  is 
generally  admitted  that  in  children's  court  cases 
it  is  the  parents  rather  than  the  children  who 
are  really  on  probation;  and  with  two  courts 
and  two  separate  probation  systems,  we  may 

*  Hoffman,  Charles  W. :  The  Domestic  Relations  Court 
and  Divorce,  The  Delinquent,  February,  191 7. 

178 


NEXT  STEPS  IN  CORRECTIVE  TREATMENT 

even  have  the  anomaly  of  the  same  family  being 
under  the  care  of  two  probation  officers  at  once. 
Specialization  can  no  further  go!  Other  leaders 
in  the  domestic  relations  court  movement  see 
little  merit  in  the  proposal  for  a  one-part  family 
court.  They  think  that,  in  the  large  cities  at 
least,  the  need  would  be  better  served  by  having 
the  domestic  relations  and  juvenile  courts  under 
one  roof,  but  as  two  separate  and  distinct  parts 
of  the  same  court.  All  are  agreed,  however, 
that  the  powers  of  one  or  the  other  of  the  two 
special  courts  should  be  enlarged  to  cover  bas- 
tardy cases,  where  this  is  not  now  done. 

The  domestic  relations  court,  whether  separate 
or  as  part  of  a  family  court,  ought  to  have 
equity  powers,  so  that  the  usual  rules  of  evi- 
dence need  not  be  so  closely  adhered  to  and 
more  latitude  could  be  allowed  the  magistrate 
in  disposing  of  cases,  not  necessarily  according 
to  ruling  and  precedent  but  according  to  the 
social  needs  disclosed.  A  constitutional  amend- 
ment now  pending  in  New  York  is  a  model  for 
this  sort  of  legislation.     It  is  in  part  as  follows: 


179 


BROKEN  HOMES 


if 


'The  legislature  may  establish  children's  courts  and 
courts  of  domestic  relations  as  separate  courts  or  parts  of 
existing  courts,  or  courts  hereafter  to  be  created,  and 
may  confer  upon  them  such  equity  and  other  jurisdiction 
as  may  be  necessary  for  the  correction,  protection,  guar- 
dianship and  disposition  of  delinquent,  neglected  or  de- 
pendent minors,  and  for  the  punishment  and  correction 
of  adults  responsible  for  or  contributing  to  such  delin- 
quency, neglect  or  dependency,  and  to  compel  the  sup- 
port of  a  wife,  child  or  poor  relative  by  persons  legally 
chargeable  therewith  who  abandon  or  neglect  to  support 
any  of  them."* 

Many  courts  of  domestic  relations  which  now 
exercise  equity  powers,  such  as  ordering  that  a 
man  remain  away  from  home  or  that  a  wife 
allow  her  husband  to  see  his  children  at  stated 
times,  do  iso  without  actual  legal  warrant  and 
subject  at  any  time  to  appeal  of  counsel.  The 
conferring  of  equity  powers  on  courts  of  domestic 
relations  is  a  form  of  protection  both  to  the 
court  and  to  its  clients  which  social  workers 
should  stand  ready  to  work  for. 

Juvenile  courts  have  in  the  main  outstripped 

*  For  a  fuller  discussion  of  equity  powers  see  an  article 
by  Judge  C.  F.  Collins  in  the  Legal  Aid  Review  for  Janu- 
ary, 1919. 

180 


NEXT  STEPS  IN  CORRECTIVE  TREATMENT 

the  domestic  relations  courts  in  the  use  of  phy- 
sicians and  psychiatrists.  The  best  examples  of 
both  these  courts  have,  however,  facilities  for 
the  making  of  physical  examinations  and  men-^ 
tal  tests,  where  necessary,  before  adjudication. 
Judge  Hoffman  says  that  the  fact  that  so  many 
cases  in  courts  of  domestic  relations  disclose  ab- 
normal or  perverted  sex  habits,  makes  important 
the  services  of  a  psychiatrist  accustomed  to 
diagnosing  these  conditions.* 

In  most  states  the  jurisdiction  of  the  courts 
of  domestic  relations  should  be  extended  and 
co-ordinated.  Few  states  escape  some  glaring 
inconsistencies  in  the  laws  governing  desertion 
and  abandonment.  There  is,  for  instance,  much 
confusion  between  states  as  to  whether  a  woman 
whose  husband  brings  her  to  a  strange  city  and 
there  deserts  her  must  prosecute  him  in  the  city 
where  their  home  is  or  where  the  desertion  took 
place.  Under  certain  circumstances  the  woman 
is  forced  to  travel  to  the  city  where  her  husband 
has  gone,  and  bring  action  against  him  there, 

*  Hoffman,  Charles  W. :  Domestic  Relations  Courts 
and  Divorce.    The  Delinquent^  February,  1917. 

181 


BROKEN  HOMES 

if  the  courts  in  that  place  will  entertain  a  suit. 
In  New  York  state  there  is  no  law  which  covers 
the  case  of  a  man  who  abandons  his  wife  while 
she  is  pregnant,  if  there  is  no  other  living  child. 
To  constitute  an  extraditable  crime  there  must 
have  been  abandonment  of  a  child  in  esse  not 
merely  in  posse. 

But  no  institution,  however  carefully  estab- 
lished by  law,  is  any  more  effective  than  the 
people  who  run  it;  and  the  usefulness  of  the 
domestic  relations  court  in  any  community  de- 
pends entirely  upon  the  social-mindedness  and 
freedom  from  political  entanglement  of  the 
judge  and  the  amount  and  quality  of  probation 
service.  From  a  social  point  of  view,  the  latter 
is  more  important  than  the  former;  for  a  bad 
decision  of  the  court  can  be  mitigated  by  good 
case  work  later  on,  while  a  poor  probation 
officer  may  nullify  the  effects  of  the  wisest 
judicial  decision  ever  made. 

The  importance  of  having  enough  probation 
officers  to  handle  the  work  of  the  court  has 
already  been  touched  upon.  An  overworked 
officer  is  perforce  an  inefficient  officer.    He  has 

182 


NEXT  STEPS  IN  CORRECTIVE  TREATMENT 

usually  to  spend  at  least  half  his  time  in  the 
court  and  attending  to  the  clerical  end  of  his 
job.  From  50  to  60  cases  is  probably  all  that 
one  probation  officer  can  be  expected  to  handle 
thoroughly  at  one  time,  if,  as  is  to  be  hoped, 
he  is  required  to  make  careful  preliminary  in- 
vestigations to  be  presented  to  the  judge  before 
the  trial. 

In  training  and  in  equipment  for  the  job,  pro- 
bation officers  should  be  the  equals  of  case  work- 
ers in  private  agencies.  Examinations  for  pro- 
bation officers  ought  to  be  conducted  by  social 
workers  of  skill  and  high  standards.  A  few 
months  of  cramming  at  a  civil  service  school,  or 
a  few  weeks  of  volunteer  visiting  with  some  case 
working  agency,  should  not  suffice  to  enable 
candidates  to  pass  the  examinations.  The  stand- 
ards should  be  high  enough  and  the  salaries 
sufficiently  attractive  to  draw  into  this  field 
people  who  have  successfully  completed  their 
apprenticeship  in  the  art  of  case  work.  Only 
then  can  the  status  of  the  probation  officer  be 
raised  to  what  it  should  be  in  the  court  itself. 
The  relation  of  the  probation  officer  to  the  judge 

183 


BROKEN  HOMES 

ought  to  be  exactly  like  the  relation  of  the  med- 
ical social  worker  to  the  physician — that  of  a 
person  acting  under  his  direction  in  a  general 
way,  but  with  a  special  contribution  to  make  to 
the  treatment  of  the  case  and  with  a  recognized 
standing  as  an  expert  in  his  own  particular  field. 


184 


NEXT  STEPS  IN  PREVENTIVE  TREAT- 
MENT 

AT  this  time  of  writing  it  is  too  soon  after 
•^^^  the  signing  of  the  armistice  to  make  predic- 
tions as  to  what  the  Great  War  may  do  to  mar- 
riage. Whether  desertion  and  divorce  will  in- 
crease or  decrease  it  is  impossible  to  say,  and 
the  experience  of  Europe  is  beside  the  mark. 
The  war  will  leave  traces  on  this  generation — 
no  doubt  about  that;  but  our  losses  have  not 
been  heavy  enough  seriously  to  disturb  the  bal- 
ance of  the  sexes.  The  war,  which  has  been 
to  the  common  people  of  our  country  a  war  of 
service  and  ideals,  has  erased  much  that  was 
petty  and  selfish;  it  has  also  caused  nervous 
shocks  and  strains  incalculable  and  unimagined. 
Years  from  now  we  may  be  able  to  strike  the 
balance,  but  today  this  cannot  be  done.  It  is 
impossible    also    to   say   whether    the   growing 

185 


BROKEN  HOMES 

irresponsibility  that  was  generally  recognized  to 
be  threatening  married  life  in  the  years  before 
the  war  is  still  operating  with  like  effect,  or 
whether  the  full  tide  of  emotion  in  which  the 
world  has  been  lately  submerged  may  have  swept 
at  least  a  part  of  it  away. 

We  are  dealing  here,  however,  not  so  much 
with  modifications  in  the  spirit  of  the  times,  as 
with  prevention  in  the  individual  case. 

One  very  fundamental  claim  can  be  made 
concerning  marital  shipwrecks;  namely,  that 
V  the  way  to  prevent  many  of  them  would  have 
been  to  see  that  the  marriage  never  was  allowed 
to  take  place.  Marriage  laws  and  their  enforce- 
/  ment  form  a  whole  subject  in  themselves  which 
is  now  receiving  careful  study,  the  results  of 
which  should  be  available  shortly.*  This  fact 
precludes  any  discussion  of  the  subject  here, 
though  the  relation  of  our  marriage  laws  to 
marital  discord  is  so  obvious  that  some  men- 
tion of  the  matter  is  necessary. 

*  See,  for  example,  American  Marriage  Laws  in  their 
Social  Aspects — a  preliminary  study  by  the  Russell  Sage 
Foundation,  June,  1919. 

(       186 


NEXT  STEPS  IN  PREVENTIVE  TREATMENT 

It  was  formerly  the  belief  of  students  of 
family  desertion  that  the  best  way  to  prevent 
desertions  was  to  punish  them  quickly  and 
severely.  It  should  be  said  that  this  plan  has 
never  received  a  fair  trial  on  a  large  scale,  for 
legal  equipment  has  always  lagged  behind  knowl- 
edge. It  may  be  true  that  just  as  a  community 
can,  within  limits,  regulate  its  death  rate  by 
what  it  is  willing  to  pay,  so  it  can  by  repressive 
measures  regulate  its  desertion  rate.  But  meas- 
ures that  keep  the  would-be  deserter  in  the  home 
which  constantly  grows  less  of  a  home,  simply 
through  fear  of  consequences  if  he  left  it,  seem 
hardly  a  desirable  form  of  prevention  from  the 
social  point  of  view.  It  would  be  much  better 
to  catch  the  disintegrating  family  in  whatever 
form  of  social  drag-net  could  be  devised,  and 
deal  with  it  individually  and  constructively 
along  the  lines  which  case  work  has  laid  down. 

Is  it  possible,  however,  to  recognize  a  "pre- 
desertion  state?"  And  if  so,  what  are  the  dan- 
ger signals?  One  case  worker  answers  this  ques- 
tion sententiously :  "Any  influences  which  tend 
to  destroy  family  solidarity  are  possible  signs  of 

187 


BROKEN  HOMES 

desertion."  Another  writes:  "We  have  some- 
times found  it  possible  to  recognize  a  '  pre-deser- 
tion  state'  in  the  intermittent  deserter,  where 
we  know  the  conditions  which  previously  led  to 
desertion,  but  I  doubt  whether  we  have  very 
often  been  able  to  note  it  in  the  case  of  first 
desertions.  In  general,  I  should  say  a  growing 
carelessness  or  a  growing  despondency  as  to  his 
ability  to  care  for  his  family  are  danger  signals 
in  the  man,  of  which  it  is  well  to  keep  track." 

The  conditions  listed  in  Chapter  II  as  "con- 
tributory factors "  might  in  certain  combinations 
be  decided  danger  signals  of  impending  deser- 
tion. Non-support  itself  is,  indeed,  one  of  the 
most  common  of  such  signals,  though  a  man 
who  has  dealt  with  hundreds  of  desertion  cases 
maintained  recently  that  the  best  and  most 
hopeful  type  of  deserter  is  the  one  who  supports 
his  family  adequately  up  to  the  time  of  leaving 
home. 

In  the  following  case  the  items  that  led  the 
case  worker  to  suspect  an  approaching  desertion 
are  set  down  in  the  order  stated  by  her.     The 


i88 


NEXT  STEPS  IN  PREVENTIVE  TREATMENT 
couple  were  Irish;   the  man  had  never  deserted 
before. 

(i)  He  had  spoken  with  eagerness  of  the  wages  that 
were  being  earned  in  munition  plants  in  a  city  a  few 
hours  away — said  he  would  like  to  go  to  some  of  those 
munition  places  and  see  what  he  could  make. 

(2)  He  was  an  intermittent  drinker. 

(3)  His  work  record  was  poor;  employers  said  he  was 
irregular  and  unreUable. 

(4)  Visitor  felt  he  had  never  earned  as  much  as  he 
was  easily  capable  of  earning  and  was  rather  indifferent 
to  the  needs  of  his  family. 

(5)  The  woman  was  willing  to  work — had  applied  for 
day  nursery  care,  but  visitor  had  persuaded  the  nursery 
not  to  accept  the  children. 

After  the  visitor  had  stated  the  first  two  of 
the  above  items  she  stopped,  and  did  not  add 
the  more  significant  three  that  followed  until 
reminded  that  many  workmen  who  drank  inter- 
mittently were  at  that  time  thinking  enviously 
of  munition  factory  wages;  and  that  these 
hardly  constituted  danger  signals.  The  cumula- 
tive effect  of  all  five  items  cannot,  however,  be 
denied. 

Another  statement,  similarly  obtained,  con- 

189 


BROKEN  HOMES 

cerns  a  colored  couple,  married  about  two  years 
and  with  two  children,  the  youngest  less  than  a 
month  old.  Man  had  been  out  of  work  and 
family  had  gone  to  live  with  relatives. 

(i)  Man  earns  $20  a  week  but  refuses  to  start  house- 
keeping again,  although  they  are  seriously  overcrowded — 
seven  adults  and  five  children  in  five  rooms. 

(2)  Woman  says  he  makes  her  sleep  on  chairs  so  that 
he  can  get  better  rest. 

(3)  He  is  seeing  a  good  deal  of  another  woman,  a 
friend  of  the  wife  (wife's  statement  only). 

(4)  Woman  had  applied  for  nursery  care  for  both  chil- 
dren so  that  she  might  go  to  work. 

(5)  It  transpires  that  she  hved  with  him  before  mar- 
riage, and  that  the  first  child  was  a  month  old  when  the 
marriage  took  place.    He  "holds  it  over  her." 

(6)  Man  had  been  married  before  and  divorced. 

(7)  The  family's  habits  of  recreation  are  changed; 
the  man  no  longer  "takes  her  out." 

Such  attempts  to  foretell  the  future  are  not 
infallible,  of  course;  but  a  listing  process  is  a 
valuable  aid  to  diagnosis,  and,  by  its  help,  a 
situation  may  be  uncovered  which  tends  toward 
complete  family  breakdown.  This  may  be  taken 
in  time  and  prevented;  or,  if  separation  is  in- 
evitable it  can  be  prepared  for  in  advance,  the 

190 


NEXT  STEPS  IN  PREVENTIVE  TREATMENT 

necessary  legal  arrangements  can  be  made  to 
protect  the  family,  and  the  anxiety,  suspense, 
and  useless  effort  avoided  which  a  sudden  and 
downright  abandonment  would  cause. 

But  the  trouble  is  that  the  problem  seldom 
comes  to  the  case  worker  until  matters  have 
progressed  farther  than  this.  The  real  question 
is — not  how  to  recognize  pre-desertion  symp- 
toms, but  how  to  get  hold  of  families  when 
these  symptoms  are  in  the  incipient  stage. 

Mr.  Hiram  Myers,  manager  of  the  Desertion 
Bureau  of  the  New  York  Association  for  Im- 
proving the  Condition  of  the  Poor,  who  has 
made  a  close  study  of  the  subject,  holds  the 
theory  that  the  real  period  of  stress  in  marital 
adjustment  comes  not  during  the  "critical  first 
year,"  about  which  we  have  been  told  so  much, 
but  at  a  later  period,  which  he  sets  roughly  at 
from  the  third  to  the  fifth  year  after  marriage. 
By  this  time  there  are  usually  one  or  two  babies, 
the  wife's  girlish  charm  has  gone,  and  the  ro- 
mance of  the  first  attraction  has  vanished,  while 
the  steady  force  of  conjugal  affection  which 
should   smooth   their   path   through   the   years 

191 


BROKEN  HOMES 

ahead  has  not  come  to  take  its  place.  It  is  in 
this  middle  period  that  longings  for  the  delights 
of  his  care-free  youth  begin  to  come  back  to  a 
man;  if  he  ever  had  the  wandering  foot,  it  be- 
gins again  to  twitch  for  the  road;  or  else  his 
fancy  is  captured  by  some  other  girl  not  tied 
down  at  home  by  children.  It  is  at  this  time, 
too,  that  endless  discords  and  misunderstand- 
ings arise — that  the  last  bit  of  gilt  crumbles  off 
the  gingerbread. 

As  a  result  of  his  observations,  Mr.  Myers 
feels  sure  that  the  majority  of  first  desertions 
'/^take  place  somewhere  from  the  third  to  the  fifth 
^  year  after  marriage.  Miss  Brandt's*  careful 
statistical  study  of  574  deserted  families  shows 
that  in  nearly  46  per  cent  of  the  families  the 
first  desertion  took  place  before  the  fifth  year 
of  married  life.  Of  course  the  jars  that  may 
come  in  the  earlier  months  of  marriage  are  sel- 
dom brought  to  the  attention  of  social  agencies, 
as  it  is  usually  the  presence  of  children  in  the 
family   and    the   consequent   burden   upon    the 

*  Brandt,  Lilian:    574  Deserters  and  their  Families,  p. 
23.    Charity  Organization  Society  of  New  York,  1905. 

192 


NEXT  STEPS  IN  PREVENTIVE  TREATMENT 

wife  which  make  such  agencies  acquainted  w^ith 
her. 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that  further  study  will  be 
made  upon  these  points.  It  is  well  known  and 
accepted  that  the  majority  of  first  deserters  are 
young  men;  but  if  certain  danger  periods  in 
married  life  can  be  definitely  recognized,  many 
new  possibilities  in  prevention  and  treatment 
will  be  opened  up. 

A  number  of  experiments  and  suggestions 
have  lately  been  made  which  may  prove  to  be 
the  means  of  recognizing  marital  troubles  early. 
The  probation  department  of  the  Chicago  Court 
of  Domestic  Relations  some  years  ago  established 
a  consultation  bureau  to  which  people  might 
come  or  be  sent  for  advice  on  difficult  matri- 
monial situations,  and  without  any  court  record 
being  made.  The  Department  of  Public  Chari- 
ties of  New  York  City  maintains  a  similar  bureau 
which  is,  however,  so  closely  connected  with  the 
court  that  its  clients  make  little  distinction  be- 
tween them. 

In  addition  to  such  conscious  efforts  to  reach 
out  after  marital  tangles  in  the  pre-court  stage, 
13  193 


BROKEN  HOMES 

there  has  recently  been  an  interesting  though 
accidental  development  in  the  city  of  Cleveland. 
During  the  thrift  campaign  of  1918,  several  sav- 
ings banks  of  that  city  conceived  the  idea  that 
their  depositors  could  be  induced  and  helped  to 
save  more  money  if  the  banks  opened  a  bureau 
for  free  advice  to  their  patrons  on  household 
management.  This  bureau  is  still  in  the  experi- 
mental stage  but  it  has  had  an  increasing  clientele 
so  far.  One  thing  that  has  astonished  its  man- 
agement— but  which  causes  no  surprise  in  the 
mind  of  a  social  worker — has  been  the  great 
variety  of  problems  other  than  those  connected 
with  the  family  budget  that  have  come  to  light 
in  the  bureau's  consultations.  Particularly  is 
this  true  of  marital  discord  centering  about 
money  affairs. 

If  such  bureaus  prove  their  usefulness  there 
is  no  reason  why  they  might  not  be  greatly  ex- 
tended, and  why  other  agencies  than  banks  (in- 
surance companies,  for  example)  might  not  be 
eager  thus  to  serve  their  customers.  This  opens 
a  new  field  for  the  home  economist,  but  inci- 
dentally it  would  appear  that,  in  order  to  func- 

194 


NEXT  STEPS  IN  PREVENTIVE  TREATMENT 

tion  successfully,  such  bureaus  would  need  to 
have  access  to  the  services  of  agencies  employing 
highly  skilled  social  case  workers.  It  is  conceiv- 
able that,  if  there  are  developed  in  our  large 
cities  consultation  facilities  under  social  auspices 
for  people  who  feel  their  marriages  going  wrong, 
and  want  help  and  advice  in  righting  them,  such 
bureaus  as  those  described  above  would  be  excel- 
lent "feeders"  for  this  new  form  of  social  service. 
Family  social  agencies  have  been  distinctly 
backward  in  some  of  their  approaches  to  the 
fundamental  problems  of  family  life.  The  failure 
of  most  of  them,  for  instance,  to  study  or  seek 
improvements  in  the  laws  governing  marriage 
or  in  their  administration,  is  difficult  of  explana- 
tion. Such  a  consultation  service  as  that  sug- 
gested does,  however,  indicate  a  new  point  of 
departure  in  dealing  with  marital  relations 
which  would  seem  to  fall  distinctly  within  the 
field  of  the  family  case  work  agencies.  It  is 
time  that  these  agencies  began  to  find  means 
of  dealing,  not  with  the  dependent  family  alone 
but  with  the  family  in  danger  of  becoming  de- 
pendent— not    with    the    family    broken    and 

195 


/ 


BROKEN  HOMES 

estranged  only,  but  with  the  one  whose  bonds, 
7'even  if  cracking  and  ill-adjusted,  still  hold. 

Concretely,  why  should  not  family  agencies 
establish  such  consultation  bureaus  as  have 
just  been  mentioned,  distinct  from  their  regular 
activities  and  hampered  by  no  suggestion  in 
their  title  of  association  with  problems  of  de- 
pendency? Dr.  William  Healy  of  Boston  ascribes 
much  of  his  success  in  getting  the  parents  of 
defective  and  backward  children  to  bring  them 
voluntarily  for  examination  to  the  fact  that  the 
name  of  his  organization  (the  Judge  Baker 
Foundation)  conveys  no  hint  of  stigma  or  in- 
feriority. Here  is  a  valuable  lesson  in  right 
publicity. 

A  bureau  of  family  advice  such  as  has  been  sug- 
gested should  be  under  unimpeachable  auspices 
from  the  point  of  view  of  medicine  and  psychi- 
atry; it  should  have  the  services  not  only  of 
expert  social  workers  and  experts  in  household 
management,  but  of  doctors  and  psychiatrists 
as  well.  If  it  could  be  run  as  a  joint-stock  enter- 
prise, in  which  courts  and  social  agencies  might 
be  equally  interested,  so  much  the  better.     Its 

196 


NEXT  STEPS  IN  PREVENTIVE  TREATMENT 

investigations  should  be  searching  enough  to 
discourage  applications  from  curiosity-mongers; 
but  its  services,  like  those  of  any  clinic,  should 
be  given  for  whatever  the  patient  is  able  to  pay. 
Its  relations,  needless  to  say,  should  be  entirely 
confidential,  and  as  privileged  in  the  eyes  of  the 
law  as  are  those  of  doctor,  lawyer,  and  priest. 

It  may  be  objected  that  people  guard  their 
marital  infelicities  too  jealously  and  are  too 
loath  to  discuss  them  to  come  willingly  to  such 
a  place;  that  the  idea  involves  a  presumptuous 
interference  in  the  private  lives  of  individuals. 
But  neurologists  know  that  people  in  increasing 
numbers  feel  the  need,  under  conditions  of  mod- 
ern stress,  for  a  safe  outlet  and  a  chance  to  dis- 
cuss their  perplexities  and  find  counsel. 

Fifty  years  ago  the  interest  now  taken  by  the 
social  and  medical  professions  in  the  question 
of  whether  mothers  are  rearing  their  infants 
properly  could  not  have  been  foreseen.  The 
establishment  of  baby  health  stations,  or  the 
activities  of  the  Children's  Bureau,  would  have 
been  looked  upon  as  unwarranted  interference 
between  the  child  and  its  mother,  whose  natural 

197 


BROKEN  HOMES 

instincts  could  be  depended  upon  to  teach  her 
how  to  nourish  it.  This  point  of  view  is  no 
longer  held;  and  the  community's  duty  to  take 
an  interest  in  the  upbringing  of  its  children  is 
never  questioned.  Is  it  not  conceivable  that, 
before  another  half  century  has  rolled  around, 
the  community  may  take  the  same  intelligent 
interest  in  the  conservation  of  the  family,  and 
that  definite  efforts,  which  are  now  almost 
entirely  lacking,  may  be  made  to  stabilize  and 
protect  it? 

Educational  propaganda  would,  of  course, 
have  to  be  a  definite  part  of  the  work  of  such 
bureaus.  By  this  is  meant  not  such  modern 
specialties  as  "birth  control,"  "sex  hygiene," 
et  al.,  though  we  may  by  that  time  have  enough 
authoritative  information  about  sex  psychology 
in  marriage  to  be  able  to  afford  some  help  along 
these  lines.  Instruction  in  the  ethics  of  married 
life  and  parenthood  is  of  even  more  fundamental 
importance.  The  prevailing  cynicism,  the  pres- 
ent low  concepts  of  marriage,  should  be  vigorously 
combatted  by  such  an  organization.  Religious 
instruction    would    be,    of    course,    beyond    its 

198 


NEXT  STEPS  IN  PREVENTIVE  TREATMENT 

scope ;  but  it  should  be  able  to  work  sympathet- 
ically with  all  creeds,  supplementing  their  teach- 
ings without  seeking  to  duplicate  them. 

The  services  of  such  a  bureau  could  not,  of 
course,  be  forced  upon  anyone  who  did  not  wish 
to  avail  himself  or  herself  of  them;  but  definite 
though  tactful  efforts  could  be  made  to  reach 
all  young  couples  (just  as  are  now  being  made 
to  reach  young  mothers)  with  information  as  to 
where  advice  could  be  obtained. 

No  trustworthy  figures  exist  as  to  the  number 
of  families  broken  by  desertion  or  divorce  in  the 
United  States,  or  as  to  the  burden  of  actual  de- 
pendency caused.  Courts,  probation  officers, 
psychiatrists,  and  family  case  workers  are  all 
dissatisfied  with  our  efforts  to  patch  up  the 
families  which  are  already  disintegrating.  One 
of  the  three  groups  mentioned  is  likely  before 
long  to  attempt  some  more  dynamic  attack 
upon  the  problem  in  its  inception.  If  any  sug- 
gestions herein  contained  find  use  in  that  pro- 
gram, the  labor  of  compiling  them  will  have 
been  indeed  well  spent. 


199 


INDEX 


Adolph  R. :  case  story  of,  69-70, 

83 
Age:  relation  of  differences  in,  27 

Agencies:  N.  Y.  Charity  Organi- 
zation Society,  44;  National 
Desertion  Bureau,  6s,  69,  7i, 
10 1 ;  United  Hebrew  Charities, 
71;  co-operative  methods,  72- 
78,  84,  86-90;  opinions  on 
methods  of  arrest,  77,  78; 
N.  Y.  Association  for  Improv- 
ing Condition  of  the  Poor,  136; 
social  problems  and  consulta- 
tion bureaus.  1 95-199 

Alcoholism:  statistics  on,  22; 
devastating  effects  of,  42;  case 
story  of  woman,  57-61;  and 
justifiable  deserters,  111-114; 
relation  to  non -support,  156 

American  Marriage  Laws  in  their 
Social  Aspects,  study  by  Rus- 
sell Sage  Foundation,  186 

Apparent  desertions:  illustrated, 
8.9 


Baldwin,  Wm.  H.,  169,  177 

Bastardy  Cases,  A  Study  of. 
Louise  deK.  Bowen,  95 

Bastardy,  see  Forced  marriages 

Behind  the  Service  Flag,  Red 
Cross  pamphlet,  160 

Bigamy:  and  common  law  mar- 
riages, 98;  immigrant  deserters, 
99 

Bosanquet,  Helen,  13 

Bowen,  Louise  deK.,  95 


Brand,  Harvey:  case  atory  of, 
122 

Brandt,  Lilian,  26,  27,  192 

Breed,  Mary,  61,  150 

Buffalo  Charity  Organization  So- 
ciety: non-support  records,  156 

Bureaus:  National  Desertion  Bu- 
reau, 65,  69,  loi;  for  consul- 
tation, 193-199;  Court  of 
Domestic  Relations,  Chicago, 
193;  Department  of  Public 
Charities,  New  York,  193; 
Children's  Bureau,  197;  im- 
portance of  educational,  198- 
199-     See  also  Agencies 

Byington,  Margaret  F.,  la 


Canada:       extradition      treaties 
sought,  119,  169 

Carstens,  C.  C,  68 

Case  illustrations:  of  apparent 
desertion,  8;  mental  deficiency, 
24;  reconciliation  through  edu- 
cation, 30;  incompatibility  and 
the  "other  woman,"  40;  inter- 
viewing the  man  essential,  57- 
61;  liberal  relief  policy,  62; 
agency  co-operation,  69,  75, 
82,  83,  84;  accident  case,  79; 
traced  through  letter,  81; 
reconciliation  after  court  mar- 
riage, 95;  "American"  mar- 
riages, 99;  justifiable  desertion, 
III,  112-114;  antagonism, 
1 1 1- 1 1 2 ;  prison  sentences  help- 
ful, 121,  122;  adequate  relief 
rids  wife  of  chronic  deserter, 
131;  adjustment  impossible, 
134;    real  affection  a  basis  of 


201 


INDEX 


reconciliation,  13s;  rehabilita- 
tion of  a  deserter,  137;  wife 
reluctant  to  return  to  man  who 
reformed,  141;  non-support 
and  ill-kept  homes,  153;  re- 
establishing non-supporters' 
homes,  158,  160,  161-163;  in- 
adequate court  orders,  172, 
173 

Case  work,  see  Social  workers 

Causal  factors:  analysis  of  study, 
10,  is;  motives  and  theories, 
17-49;  rationalization  dis- 
cussed, 17-22;  summary  of 
statistics,  21-22,  26-27,  45; 
feeble-mindedness,  24-25; 
training  and  self-control,  25- 
26;  nationality,  26-27;  re- 
ligion, 27;  age,  27;  environ- 
ment, 27-28;  wrong  basis  of 
marriage  28;  common  law 
marriage,  29;  ignorance,  29; 
incompetence,  31;  wanderlust, 
32;  inadequate  income,  32; 
financial  mismanagement,  33 ; 
physical  condition,  34-35 ;  tem- 
peramental differences,  36;  sex 
incompatibility,  37-39;  vice 
and  disease,  39-43;  relatives, 
interference  of,  43-44;  racial 
studies,  44-45 ;  community 
standards,  45-46;  recreation, 
47;  companions,  influence  of, 
48;  shifting  responsibility,  48; 
underlying  causes,  49;  seeking 
a  working  basis,  91-105 

Charitable  relief:  desertion  in 
expectation  of,  48,  61;  Mary 
Breed  on,  61;  immigrant's  in- 
terpretation of ,  99- 1 00.  See  also 
Collusion 

Chicago  Court  of  Domestic  Re- 
lations, bureau  for  marital 
advice,  193 

Chicago  Juvenile  Protective  As- 
sociation: study  of  forced  mar- 
riages by,  94-95 

Children's  Bureau,  197 

Closing  the  case:  extended  treat- 
ment recommended,  63 

Colcord,  J.  C,  61,  104,  133 


Collins,  C.  F.,  180 

Collusion:  infrequency  of,  52, 
70;  case  stories  of,  71,  72; 
statistics  of  National  Desertion 
Bureau,  71;  preventive  meas- 
ures, 73-80 

Common  law  marriages:  legal 
protection  under,  29;  confusion 
of  state  laws,  98 

Community  ideals,  see  Standards 

Companions:  influence,  and  wan- 
derlust, 47-48;  aid  in  finding 
deserters,  77,  80 

Co-operation  of  agencies,  68-78, 
84,  86-90;  suggested  methods 
01  finding  deserters,  78-90; 
probation  officers,  116,  122- 
124 

Corrective  treatment:  legislative 
recommendations,  164-184; 
military  systems  aid  in  tracing 
deserters,  165-166;  obstacles, 
167;  serving  a  warrant  or 
summons,  168;  extradition 
treaties  recommended,  169; 
dependency  through  emigra- 
tion, report  on,  170;  deporta- 
tion laws,  171;  court  orders  to 
pay,  Seybert  Institution  report 
on,  172-177;  special  courts  for 
juvenile  delinquents,  177,  178, 
179;  Family  Court  of  Cincin- 
nati, 178;  domestic  relations 
court,  178,  179-180,  181-182; 
probation  officers,  182-184 

Court  intervention:  policy  of 
treatment  in  past,  50-51; 
reasons,  and  laxity  of  laws, 
51-52;  social  agency  statistics, 
52;  a  last  resort,  53-54".  effect 
of,  55.  95;  for  persistent  de- 
serters, 114-117;  extradition, 
117-119;  probation,  1 19-124; 
warrant  served  by  wife,  127; 
effecting  reconciliations,  132- 
140;  domestic  relation  courts 
effect  reconciliations,  132;  vol- 
unteers, 139-140;  inadequacy 
of  orders,  172-177;  for  juvenile 
delinquents,  178,  181;  domestic 
relations,  179-182,  193 


202 


INDEX 


Department  of  Public  Charities, 
New  York  City,  bureau  of 
domestic  relations,  i93 

Deserters  and  their  Families,  S74- 
Lilian  Brandt,  192 

Desertion  and  Non-Support  in 
Family  Case  Work.  Joanna 
C.  Colcord,  61,  104,  133 

Detectives:  methods  objection- 
able, 74.  77 

Disease:  statistical  analysis,  22; 
and  psychiatry,  24;  effects  of 
physical  debility,  34;  venereal 
disease,  41;  alcoholism,  42. 
See  also  Medical-Social  work 

District  of  Columbia:  non-sup- 
port laws,  177 

Divorce:  relation  to  desertion, 
7,  8;  not  considered,  16;  ad- 
ministration of  laws,  and  re- 
spect for,  46;  by  publication, 
loi;  clearing  bureau  for,  loi- 
102;  for  long  continued  deser- 
tion, no;  legal  separation  to 
protect  wife,  127;  bureaus 
might  prevent,  193-199 

Domestic  relations  courts:  to 
combine  with  juvenile,  178, 
179;  Family  Court  of  Cincin- 
nati, 178;  equity  powers  for, 
179,  180;  amendment  pending, 
179;   facilities,  181 

Domestic  Relations  Court  and 
Divorce.  C.  W.  Hoffman,  178, 
181 

Donald,  Patrick:  case  story  of, 
19 

Drug  addiction,  see  Narcotics 


Early  influences:  and  self-con- 
trol ,  25-26;  educational,  29, 
30,  46,  92,  153.  198 

Economics:  ratio  of  desertions  in 
"hard  times,"  21,  32;  family 
finances,  33;  service  bureaus, 
194 


Education:  social  studies  of 
family  life,  11-14;  early  train- 
ing and  delinquency, 26;  back- 
ground for  failures,  29-30;  de- 
structive forces,  46;  suggestions 
for  case  workers,  63;  Atten- 
dance Department  traces  de- 
serters, 73;  non-support  and 
inefficiency  eliminated  by,  153; 
propaganda,  198 

Ellis,  Havelock,  39 

Environment:  and  immigration, 
27-28;  neighborhood  stan- 
dards, 46,  102 

Equity  powers,  of  domestic  re- 
lations courts,  179,  180 

Eubank,  E.  E.,  21 

Extradition:  state  problems.  117- 
119;  for  dangerous  men,  129- 
130;  non-support  law,  150; 
treaties  essential,  ratification 
pending,  169,  170;  N.  Y.  state 
law,  182 

Extravagance:  family  finances, 
33 


Family  as  a  Social  and  Educa- 
tional Institution.  The.  Willy- 
stine  Goodsell,  11 

Family  Court  of  Cincinnati,  178 

Family  Desertion.  Lilian  Brandt, 
26 

Family  Desertion,  A  Study  of. 
E.  E.  Eubank,  21 

Family  life:  permanence  of,  9, 
11-15;  spiritual  values  of,  12, 
29;  consultation  service  to 
solve  problems  of,  19S-199 

Family,  The.  Helen  Bosanquet, 
13 

Fear  of  bodily  harm  from  dan- 
gerous deserters,  128-129 

Federal  Employment  Service,  166 

Finding  deserters,  65-90;  Na- 
tional Desertion  Bureau,  65, 
69,  71;    urgency  of  finding  the 


203 


INDEX 


man,  67;  C.  C.  Carstens 
quoted,  68;  example  of,  69-70; 
collusion,  instances  of,  70-73; 
literature  lacking,  74;  detective 
methods,  illustration  of,  74-77; 
suggestions  for,  78-80;  through 
military  authorities,  81-82; 
trade  places,  82-83;  publica- 
tions, 83,  84,  8s;  bulletin 
boards,  84;  employment  agen- 
cies, 84;  agency  co-operation, 
86-90 

First  desertions:  temporary  char- 
acter of,  8;  medical-social  work 
a  preventive,  9;  accident  rec- 
ords aid  in  tracing,  79;  critical 
nature  of,  91;  when  apt  to 
occur,  191-192 

First  problem  in  desertion,  67,  91 

Forced  marriages:  irregular 
unions,  28;  investigation  of, 
and  statistics,  92-96;  study  by 
Chicago  Juvenile  Protective 
Association,  94;  case  illustra- 
tions, 95-96 

Forel,  August,  39 

Francis,  Mrs.:  case  story  of,  131 

Frost,  Robert,  14 


Gambling :  effect  upon  character, 
43;  relation  to  non-support, 
iS6 

Glasgow  Parish  Council,  report 
on  dependency,  170-17 1 

Goodsell,  Willystine,  11 

Gorokhoff,  Andreas:  case  story 
of,  121 

Gray,  Aleck:  case  story  of,  i6i- 
163 

Hart,  Bernard,  20 

Healy,  Dr.  William,  196 

Heredity:  psychopathic  person- 
ality, 24;  feeble-mind  edness, 
25;    racial  differences,  26-28 

Hoffman,  Charles  W.,  178,  181 


Illustrations,  see  Case  illustrations 

Immorality,  see  Sex  factors 

Inadequate  relief:  legal  separa- 
tion, and  the  law,  128;  wife's 
attitude,  130;  illustrated,  131; 
court  orders,  inconsistency  of, 
172-176;  recent  legislation  to 
correct,  177.  See  also  Non- 
support 

Income:  economic  issues,  21,  22, 
30;     wages    and    non-support 
32-33 

Incompatibility:  temperamental 
differences,  36;  sex  relations, 
37-39,  40 

Industrial  deficiency:  in  husband 
and  wife,  25,  31;  national 
registration  to  correct,  166 

Insanity:  study  of  defectives,  20, 
24 

Insanity,  The  Psychology  of. 
Bernard  Hart,  20 

Instability:  forms  of ,  mental  and 
physical,  17-22;  factors  that 
induce,  24-43,  47-49 

"Intermittent  husbands,"  43,  153 

Interviewing  the  man:  impor- 
tance of,  55-57.  105 ;  case 
story,  57-61 

Italy:  marriage  registration  in, 
100 


Judge  Baker  Foundation,  of 
Boston,  196 

Justifiable  deserters:  and  alco- 
holism, 42;  case  illustration, 
S7-6i,  III;  procedure  with, 
112 

Justification:  thirst  for  expe- 
rience, 9,  19;  process  of  ration- 
alization, 20;  venereal  disease 
and  separation,  41;  alcohol, 
and  "justifiable  deserters,"  42; 
Williams  case  illustrates,  57- 
61,  III;  and  the  non-supporter, 
152-154 


204 


INDEX 


Juvenile  courts:  movement  for 
special,  177.  178;  Juvenile 
Court  Act,  178;  combine  with 
domestic  relation  courts,  178; 
Family  Court  of  Cincinnati, 
178;   facilities,  i8i 


Laflin,  Mrs.:   case  story  of,  IS5 

Latham, George:  case  story  of,  137 

Legal  separation  to  protect  wife, 
127-129 

Legislation:  irregular  unions,  29, 
98;  pioneering  methods,  50- 
52;  state  aid  to  mothers,  63; 
common  law  unions,  legality  of, 
98,  loi;  Italian,  100;  divorce 
for  permanent  desertion,  no; 
for  justifiable  deserters,  iii- 
112;  court  action  for  persistent 
deserters,  114-117;  extradi- 
tion, 117-119,  129;  probation, 
120-124;  legeJ  facilities  to  pro- 
mote efficiency,  164-184;  serv- 
ing a  warrant,  168;  extradition 
treaties,  169-170;  deportation, 
171;  court  procedure,  172-177; 
juvenile  delinquency,  177,  178, 
180;  domestic  relations,  and 
special  courts,  177.  178,  179. 
180-182;  marriage  laws,  186, 
I9S 

Loane,  M.,  154 

Long,  Martin:  case  story  of,  141 


Making  the  Deserter  Pay  the 
Piper.    W.  H.  Baldwin,  177 

Mancini,  Onofrio:  case  story  of, 
172 

Marital  vagaries:  possible  rea- 
sons for,  35 

Marriage:  spiritual  values  of, 
II,  12,  29;  homelier  elements 
in,  13-15;  wrong  bases  of,  28; 
common  law  unions.  29;  dis- 
paragement of  ideals  con- 
demned, 45-46.  198;  verifica- 
tion, and  state  legislation,  98- 
100;  registration  in  Italy,  100; 
American  marriage  laws,  186 


McCann,  Herbert:  case  story  of, 
84-85,  86 

Medical-social  work:  preventing 
desertion,  9;  summary  of  case 
analyses,  22;  psychiatry  and 
mental  deficiency,  24;  physical 
debility,  34;  "  pregnancy  deser- 
tion," 34-35;  sex  incompatibil- 
ity, 37-39;  bureaus  of  advice 
recommended,  193-196.  See 
also  Psychology 

Mellor,  Joseph:  case  story  of,  in 

Mentality:  irresponsible  agents, 
17-20;  psychology  of  insanity, 
20,  24;  educational  handicaps, 
29 

Mexico:  and  extradition,  119, 
170 

Morgan,  Charles:  case  story  of, 
147-148 

Motion,  J.  R.,  171 

Myers,  Hiram,  191,  192 


Narcotics:  percentage  of  influ- 
ence, 22,  42 

Nationality :  statistical  facts 
about  difference  in,  26-27,  44- 
45;  racial  attitude,  and  per- 
centages of  deseiters,  44-45 ; 
case  problem,  49;  Jewish  de- 
sertion bureau,  65,  69,  71,  loi- 
102 

National  Conference  of  Jewish 
Charities,  seeks  extradition 
treaty,  169 

National  Conference  of  Social 
Work,  extradition  treaty  urged, 
169 

National  Desertion  Bureau.  Jew- 
ish legal  aid,  6s;  story  of  trac- 
ing a  deserter,  69-70;  collusive 
desertion  cases,  71;  clearing 
bureau  established,  101-102 

Neighborhood  influence,  see  Stan- 
dards 

Newspapers,  see  Publicity 


205 


INDEX 


New  York  Association  for  Im- 
proving the  Condition  of  the 
Poor:  practice  of  Desertion 
Bureau,  136 

New  York  Charity  Organization 
Society:  study  of  racial  groups, 
and  percentages,  44-4S 

New  York  State  Conference  of 
Charities  and  Correction,  Pro- 
ceedings, on  non-supporters, 
150 

Non-supporters:  as  potential 
deserters,  149-163;  legal  treat- 
ment of,  149-1S0;  analogous 
to  deserters,  IS0-IS3,  188; 
characteristics,  151,  189.  190; 
wife's  influence  a  factor,  152- 
154;  illustrations,  I5S.  IS8, 
160;  reclamation,  illustrated, 
16 1- 163;  approach  to  deser- 
tion, 188-191 

Non-support  Law:  in  Massa- 
chusetts, 149-150 

Normal  Family,  The.  Margaret 
F.  Byington,  12 

North  of  Boston.  Robert  Frost, 
14 

One  Thousand  Homeless  Men. 
Alice  W.  Solenberger,  157 

Overindulgence:  teaching  self- 
control,  25-26;  wage-earning 
wives,  154 

Pelligrini,  Orfeo:  case  story  of ,  99 

Permanence  of  family  life,  9,  n- 
15 

Permanent  desertions,  see  Di- 
vorce 

Philadelphia  Court  of  Domestic 
Relations,  report  on  reconcilia- 
tions, 135-136 

Philadelphia  Society  for  Organiz- 
ing Charity:  report  of,  7 

Photographs  of  deserters:  society 
presents  to  wife,  10;  tracing 
out-of-town  clues,  78,  84,  85 


Physical  condition:  ill  health,  34; 
"difficulty"  of  pregnant  wo- 
men, 35;  maladjustments,  38; 
recreation  essential,  47;  recom- 
mendations, 196-199 

"Pregnancy  desertion":  how  ex- 
plained, 34-35 

Preventive  treatment:  past  opin- 
ions, 187;  non-support  leading 
to  desertion,  188-192;  for  first 
desertions,  192-193;  bureaus 
for  advice  and  consultation, 
193-199;  suggestions  for,  196- 
199 

Probation:  testimony  of  social 
workers,  1 19-120;  and  im- 
prisonment, 1 2 1- 1 24;  legal 
separation  proceedings  during 
128;  officers  effect  reconcilia- 
tion, 132;  illustrations,  133- 
134,  137,  141;  "stay-away" 
probation,  138;  economy  plan 
for  officers,  178;  number  and 
efficiency  of  officers,  182-184; 
consultation  bureau,  193 

Provisional  quality  of  desertions 
9 

Psychoanalysis:  mental  defi- 
cients, and  heredity,  24;  in- 
compatibility and  sex  perver- 
sion, 37-39.  See  also  Sex 
factors 

Psychology:  rationalization  proc- 
ess, 20;  mental  defectives,  24; 
sex  incompatibility,  37-39; 
studies  on,  39;  knowledge  of, 
essential,  103 

Publicity:  photographs  a  medium 
of,  10,  78,  84,  85;  agencies  and 
newspapers,  84-90;  divorce  by 
"publication,"  loi;  illustra- 
tion, 196 

Queen's  Poor,  The.  M.  Loane, 
154 

Questionnaires:  liberal  relief 
policy,  62;  searching  for  de- 
serters, 78;  treatment  of  deser- 
tion, 106 


206 


INDEX 


Ratio  of  desertions:  economic 
factors,  21,  31,  32-33 

Reconciliation:  factors  that 
prompt,  13-14;  and  the  "other 
woman,"  40-41;  following 
court  marriage,  9S-96;  after 
prison  term,  121-122;  con- 
siderations involved,  125-132; 
unwillingness  of  wife,  illus- 
trated, 131;  criminal  tenden- 
cies prevent,  134;  affection  a 
safe  basis  of,  135;  practice  of 
N.  Y.  Association  for  Improv- 
ing Condition  of  the  Poor,  136- 
137;  volunteer  visitors  helpful, 
139-140;  case  worker's  success 
in  effecting,  illustrated,  142- 
148;  bureaus  to  promote,  193- 
199 

Recreation:   why  essential,  47 

Red  Cross  Home  Service,  81,  159, 
160 

Relatives:  interference  of,  43- 
44.  49 

Religion:  differences  in,  a  study 
of,  26,  27 

Repeated  desertions:  frequency 
of,  8;  "intermittent  husbands," 
43.153;  suggestions  for  tracing 
the  man,  79;  relative  nature 
of,  92 

Responsibility:  self-therapy  illus- 
trated, 8;  deserters  disclaim, 
19-20;  essentials  of  early 
training,  25-26;  education  pro- 
motes, 29,  198;  and  charitable 
relief,  48,  100;  wage-earning 
wives,  and  non-supporters,  154 

Richmond,  Mary  E.:  on  volun- 
teers in  case  work,  78,  106, 
140 

Ridicule:  of  matrimony,  by  press 
and  films,  45-46 

Russell  Sage  Foundation,  study, 
American  marriage  laws,  186 


Selective  Service  Act,  165 


Sex  factors:  determine  forgive- 
ness, 13-14;  statistical  sum- 
mary, 21-22;  "pregnancy  de- 
sertion," 34-35;  incompatibil- 
ity, 37-40;  immorality,  39,  96; 
knowledge  of  sex  psychology 
essential,  103 

Sex  in  Relation  to  Society.  Have- 
lock  Ellis,  39 

Sexual  Question,  The.  A.  Forel, 
39 

Seybert  Institution,  Philadelphia, 
on  relation  of  income  to  court 
order,  173 

Slacker  marriages,  97 

Social  workers:  opinions  of,  7-8; 
appreciative  faculties  of,  11; 
knowledge  of  sex  relations  im- 
perative, 37-38;  diagnoses  re- 
ferred to  specialists,  38;  under- 
value recreation,  47;  question- 
naires on  treatment,  62,  78, 
106;  detective  methods,  68- 
90;  agency  co-operation,  78- 
90;  sex  problems,  103;  neces- 
sary information  for,  summar- 
ized, 104-105;  protection  of 
legal  separation,  127;  success- 
ful case  records,  142-148 

Solenberger,  Alice  W.,  IS7       • 

Spiritual  values:  of  family  life, 
11-12,  29 

Standards:  and  temperamental 
differences,  36;  community 
concepts,  45-46;  neighborhood 
influence,  47,  102 

State  aid  to  mothers,  63;  vital 
statistics,  93 


Temporary  desertions:  report  of 
Philadelphia  Society,  7-8;  do- 
mestic crises  and  vagaries,  34- 
35.    See  also  Reconciliation 

Theories  to  explain  desertion,  20. 
See  also  Causal  factors 

Treatment  of  desertion:  policy, 
past  and  present,  50-64;  court 


207 


INDEX 


intervention,  50-54;  interview- 
ing the  man,  55-6o,  105;  relief 
to  families,  61;  opinions  of 
case  workers,  62;  case  story, 
62;  state  aid,  63;  closing  the 
case,  time  for,  63;  changes  in 
worker's  attitudes,  64;  where- 
abouts known,  willing  to  re- 
turn, 125-148;  Philadelphia 
Court  of  Domestic  Relations, 
study  by,  13S-136;  N.  Y. 
Association  for  Improving  Con- 
dition of  the  Poor,  practice  of, 
136;  family  restoration  illus- 
trated, 137;  volunteers  recom- 
mended, 139-140;  wife  relents, 
illustration  of  reconciliation, 
141;  study  of  successful  work- 
er's records,  142-148 

United  Hebrew  Charities,  71 

Vagaries:  marital,  34-35 

Venereal  disease:  relation  to  de- 
sertion. 41 


Verification:  of  marriage,  98- 
99;  in  Italy,  100;  Latin- 
American  custom,  100 

Volunteers:  service  valuable  for 
effecting  reconciliation,  139- 
140 


Wanderlust:  instability  of  tem- 
perament, 19;  relation  to  de- 
sertion, 32 

Warrant  for  arrest:  protection 
afforded  wife,  127;  system  in- 
adequate, 168 

West,  Alfred:  case  story  of,  30 

Wife  and  Family  Desertion:  Emi- 
gration as  a  Contributory  Cause. 
J.  R.  Motion,  171 

Wife  who  deserts,  not  considered, 
15 

Williams,  Mrs.  Clara:  case  story 
of,  57-^0,  III 


208 


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